97 
MEMOIR. 
GENERAL W. H. ASKWITH, COL.-COMMANDANT, R.A. 
[Born 7th September, 1811. Died 25th November, 1897]. 
THE Regiment has every reason to lament the loss of General 
William Harrison Askwith, the oldest officer on the list of the Royal 
Artillery and the second senior Colonel-Commandant. 
From the date of his earliest connection with the Regiment up to, 
we may say, the last day of his life, General Askwith took not only a 
lively interest but a most active part in regimental records and in every¬ 
thing which concerned and affected the efficiency and prosperity of the 
corps he so dearly loved. 
It would be difficult to name any officer on the long and distinguish¬ 
ed roll of the Royal Artillery, who so consistently identified himself 
with it. His memory was good and he loved to recall scenes and epi¬ 
sodes which he was a witness of in the earlier years of his regimental 
life, especially when in the company of his contemporaries or of 
other regimental friends. General Askwith was a consistent collector 
of regimental records of all kinds. The writer can remember as far 
back as the sixties that the General, then the superintendent of the R. 
Gunpowder Factory, at Waltham Abbey, religiously kept up a huge 
list of all the officers R.A., in which he even noted amongst other things 
whether the officer were married or single ! He had a collection of 
Army Lists from the date of his first commission and noted all the 
promotions, &c.: he kept up his Kane’s List, worked out tables of re¬ 
lationship between the officers of the regiment, collected the war services, 
foreign stations and staff appointmentsof each officer, besides numerous 
other matters all of interest to those who prize records, and which must 
be of value hereafter. He preserved several old uniforms and reg¬ 
imental relics of various kinds, amongst others he still kept the mourn¬ 
ing sash which each officer got who was on duty on the day of the 
funeral of William IY. 
In his later years General Askwith devoted all his leisure to one 
great labour of love, the revision and amplification of “ Kane’s List.” 
All the mass of records he had kept during his service now came in 
usefully and it must have been a matter of extreme gratification to 
him, to kuow that his labours were appreciated by the regiment and 
2 . VOL. XXV. 
