Andrew Gilbert Wauchope

Who was Andrew Gilbert Wauchope?

Major-General Andrew Gilbert Wauchope was a British Army officer, killed commanding a brigade at the Battle of Magersfontein in the South African War.

Andrew Gilbert was the second son of Andrew Wauchope of Niddrie Marischal, Midlothian, Scotland and Frances-Mary née Lloyd daughter of Henry Lloyd, Esq., Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Following education at Stubbington House School he was sent to HMS Britannia in 1859 to train as a naval cadet, then posted as a midshipman to St George the following year. He was not happy there, and obtained his discharge from the Navy on 3 July 1862, shortly before his eighteenth birthday.

He resolved to enter the Army, and purchased a second lieutenant's commission in the Black Watch in 1865. In 1867 he was appointed lieutenant, and served as an adjutant from 1870 to 1873. In 1873 he served in the Second Anglo-Ashanti War, detached on special service with a Hausa regiment; he was twice wounded and mentioned in despatches.

In July 1878, the United Kingdom took control of Cyprus as a result of the Cyprus Convention, and Wauchope was appointed governor of the Paphos region, returning to England in August 1880. He was promoted Captain in 1878, and made CMG in 1880.