COXTRIBVTORS TO Till; FIRST SERIES OF ' THE IRIS.' 18< 



Colonel L. H. IRBY. 



Lieut. -Colonel Leonard Howard Loyd Irby^ who died on 

 May 14th, 1905, at 14 Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, 

 N.W., was the fourth son of the late Rear- Admiral the 

 Hon. Frederick Paul L*by, C.B., R.N., the second son of 

 the second Lord Boston. He was born in 1836 and was 

 educated at Rugby, On May 5th, 1854, he was gazetted 

 as Ensign in the 90th Light Infantry, and six months later 

 proceeded with it to the Crimea. He served at the siege of 

 Sebastopol throughout the terrible winter of 1854-55, 

 receiving the medal and clasp and Turkish medal, and. was 

 pronioted Captain, February 24th, 1857. The same year, 

 upon troops being' dispatched to China, the 90th L.I. were 

 ordered thither. Three companies — Capt. Garnet Wolseley's 

 (afterwards Field-Marshal Viscount AVolseley), Capt. Irby's, 

 and another — sailed in H.M. Troopship 'Transit,' on April 

 8th, 1857. 



On the voyage out the vessel was wrecked in the Straits 

 of Banca, near Sumatra, and became a total loss. The 

 British soldiers were lauded on a small island adjacent to 

 the scene of the wreck, and after ten days the ' Dove ' 

 gunboat arrived, bringing the startling news of the great 

 Sepoy Rebellion, and further orders that the 90th, in place 

 of continuing the voyage to China, were to go to Calcutta. 

 Thither the regiment proceeded, via Singapore, arriving on 

 August 11th, 1857. From Calcutta they made a forced 

 march of some 700 xniles to Cawnpore, arriving there whilst 

 evidences of the terrible massacre were yet visible on all 

 sides. Here Irby came in for a great deal of fighting, his 

 " record " including the relief of Lucknow under Lord 

 Clyde, the defence of the Alum Bagh under Outram, and 

 the siege and fall of Lucknow. 



From his earliest days Irby had been profoundly interested 



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