Life

Arthur William, the younger son of William Garnett (civil servant)

William Garnett (civil servant)

-Life:Garnett, born in London on 13 Nov. 1793, was the second and posthumous son of Thomas Garnett of Old Hutton, Kendal, who married Martha Rolfe, and died in 1793. By the premature death of his father, the care of William and his elder brother Thomas devolved at an early age on their cousin, Mr...

 of Westmoreland, inspector-general of inland revenue, was born 1 June 1829, and educated at Addiscombe College, where he obtained his first commission in 1846, and proceeded to India in 1848 as a lieutenant of the Bengal engineers. He was appointed assistant field engineer with the army before Mooltan, and wounded while in attendance on Sir John Cheape reconnoitring the breaches, but was able to take charge of the scaling-ladders in the subsequent assault. He joined the army under Lord Gough, held the fords of the Chenâb during the victory at the Battle of Gujrat, and went forward with Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert's flying column in pursuit of the Afghans. Having taken part in the first survey of the Peshawûr

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

 valley with Lieutenant James T. Walker (afterwards surveyor-general of India), he was next engaged on public works at Kohât

Kohat

Kohat is a medium sized town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 33°35'13N 71°26'29E with an altitude of 489 metres and is the capital of Kohat District. The town centres around a British-era fort, various bazaars, and a military cantonment. A British-built narrow gauge...

, where in 1850 the sappers employed under his command in making a road to the Kothul were surprised in their camp by the Afreedees. Garnett and Sir F. R. Pollock (then Lieutenant), who was also stationed at Kohât, were surrounded, but held their position until the arrival of a relieving force from Peshawûr under Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde

Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde

Field Marshal Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde GCB, KSI was a British Army officer from Scotland who led the Highland Brigade in the Crimea and was in command of the ‘Thin red line’ at the battle of Balaclava...

, accompanied by General Charles J. Napier

Charles James Napier

General Sir Charles James Napier, GCB , was a general of the British Empire and the British Army's Commander-in-Chief in India, notable for conquering the Sindh Province in what is now Pakistan.- His genealogy :...

, by whom the Kohât pass was forced.

Garnett reconstructed and strengthened the fort of Kohât, designed and built the fort at Bahadoor Kheyl for guarding the salt mines, as well as barracks, forts, and defensive works at other points on the frontier, including 'Fort Garnett,' named after him. He planted forest trees wherever practicable, constructed bridges, roads, and other works under circumstances of extraordinary difficulty, and in spite of serious obstacles mentioned in the published report of the administration, where the entire credit of the works is assigned to Lieutenant Garnett, who 'has made very good roads, which he could not possibly have done without the possession of hardihood, temper, and good judgment.'

He was constantly interrupted by being called upon to take the field with the several expeditions in the Dernjât, Meeranzaie valley, Eusofzaie country, Koorum valley, and Peiwer Kothul, &c., where there was frequently hard fighting. During the mutiny Garnett was kept at his post on the frontier, where his experience and infiuence with the hillmen were of the greatest value. He came to England on leave in 1860, and was occupied in the examination of dockyard works, with a view to his future employment in the construction of such works if required at Bombay.

On his return to India in 1861, shortly after his marriage to Mary Charlotte Barnard of Crewkerne, by whom he had a posthumous daughter, and while temporarily acting as assistant to Colonel Yule, C.B., then secretary to government in the department of public works, he was attacked with pleurisy, and died in his thirty-second year, after a few days' illness. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta, where his memory is recorded by a monument erected by his brother officers, other monuments being also placed in the church at Kohât, which he had built, and in the church of Holy Trinity at Brompton.