63 
f 
f 
TWO AUTHORITIES ON “THE EASTERN QUESTION.” 
f BY 
/ 
GENERAL SIR COLLINGWOOD DICKSON, V.C., K.C.B., R.A. 
, AND 
i 
f GENERAL W. H. ASKWITH, R.A. 
Tue following notes on two Artillerymen who served with distinction 
in Turkey and Persia earlier in this century will be appreciated now 
that “ The Eastern Question ”’ is once more at issue. 
GENERAL SIR W. FENWICK WILLIAMS OF KARS. 
The subject of this memorandum was born at Halifax, N.S. in 
December 1800, being the second son of Thomas Williams, Esq., 
Commissary-General and Barrack-Master at Halifax, N.S. (The 
dates of his entry into the Royal Artillery and of his various promotions 
to rank in the Regiment are given in the List of Officers of the Royal 
Artillery, published by the R.A. Institution (1891), and in Kane’s 
original Lists of the same). 
The early services of this most distinguished officer as a Lieutenant 
were first at Gibraltar from July 1825 to November 1827, then 
in Ceylon from January 1828 to November 1839, and during the 
period of his service in Ceylon he was A.D.C. for a time to Sir 
Wilmot Horton, the Governor, and was also acting Surveyor-General 
in Ceylon, under Sir Wilmot Horton. In August 1840 he became 
a 2nd Captain and served at Woolwich in a Field Battery until 
January 1841, when he was selected by the Government (Lord Palmer- 
ston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs) to proceed to ‘lurkey with a 
small party of one Subaltern and 8 Non-Commissioned Officers, 
R.A. and a Laboratory Artificer for the purpose of instructing the 
Turkish Artillery and improving their Artillery matériel and manu- 
facturing establishments of the Turkish Ordnance Departments, and 
he was attached to the British Embassy at Constantinople under Lord 
Ponsonby, the then Ambassador. He arrived at Constantinople with 
his party in March 1841. 
The ability displayed by him in the performance of his important 
duties attracted the tavourable notice of Sir Stratford Canning, who 
had succeeded Lord Ponsonby as Ambassador, and when disputes 
arose between Turkey and Persia on the subject of their Frontier 
Boundaries, which appeared likely to culminate in a war between the 
2. VOL. XXIII. sy) 
