Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/1093

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1076

VINCENT.

Danube at Brila ; was present at the crossing at Simnitza on the 27th of June, and followed the Army of the Lorn ; was at the occupation of Biela and Timova, and was present with Mr. Forbes at the great battle and defeat of the Russians at Plevna on the 31st of July. Mr. Villiers was present at the battle of the Balkans in August, and saw the investment of Plevna in October. He was taken ill with Danubian fever during that month, and or- dered to return to England. In November he started again for the front, recrossed the Danube over the ice, and marched over the Shipka Pass on to Adrianople. He arrived when the armistice was declared. He was the third corre- spondent to enter Constantinople. Lastly, he was present at San Stef ano when peace was signed and an- nounced to the Bussian Guard by the Grand Duke Nicholas on Sun- day, March 3, 1878. Mr. Villiers received the cross for the passage of the Danube and the war medal. In June of that year he went to Malta, and was present at the review of the Indian Contingent by the Duke of Cambridge. In November he left England for Af- ghanistan. He went through the first part of that campaign till the signing of the Treaty of Gandamiik ; then left for Australia ; was at the opening of the Sydney Exhibition j travelled through New Zealand, and returned to England vid San Francisco and New York, thus making a journey roimd the world. Mr. Villiers left England for Egypt immediately on receipt of the news of the massacres at Alex- andria, of the 11th of June, 1882 ; was on H.M.S. Condor during the bombardment of that city ; and landed with the Marines. After- wards he followed the army to Is- malia ; was at the first fight at Tel- Maharta, and was with the Highland Brigade during the night march and subsequent attack on Tel-el-Kebir. Mr. Villiers remaiaed in Cairo till

the trial and banishment of Aiabi and his confederates. He received for this campaign the order and rosette of the Mejidieh and the Egyptian war-medal from the hands of the Khedive.

VINCENT, Chables Edwabd Howard, was born May 31, 1849, at Slinf old. Sus8ex,being the second son of the Kev. Sir Frederick Vincent, Bart. He was educated at Westmin- ster School, and the Eoyal Military College, Sandhurst, Herefordshire. He was appointed Ensig^i in the 23rd Eoyal Welch Fusiliers in 1868; retired as Lieutenant in 1873 ; and was appointed Captain in the Boyal Berks Militia in the latter year ; but resigned in 1875 to assume the Lieut- Colonelcy of the Central London Bangers, which commission he re- signed in 1878, on his appointment as Director of Criminal Investiga- tions. He entered at the Inner Temple in 1873 ; was called to the bar in 1876, and entered at the Paris Faculty de Droit in 1877. He became editor of the Police Gazette in 1883 ; and was Chairman of the Metropolitan and City Police Orphanage in 1880-83. Mr. Vincent was Special Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph at Berlin in 1871 ; received the thanks of the War Office for his reports upon Bussia in 1872 ; gave numerous lectures upon Fo- reign Armies at the Boyal United Service Institution in 1872; was Mili- tary Commissioner of the Daily TeU- graph at the commencement of the Turco-Eussian War in 1877 ; and assembled a Conference upon the Be- quirements of the Volunteer Force, leading to considerable reforms, in 1878. He was appointed, March 4, 1878, to re-organise the Detective system of the Metropolitan PoHoe, with the designation of Director of Criminal Investigations, and with absolute control over the criminal administration. His published works are : — " Stoffel's Eeports upon the Prussian Army," 1871 ; " Elemen- tary Military Geography, Beoon- noitring and Sketching/' 1872;