Lieutenant General Robert Cannon – Behram Pacha 1811-1882, Isabella Langford Cannon 1827-1853, Amy Josette L. Massinberd Cannon 1851-1854, Emma Beevor Ronald Cannon 1832-1888
Behind huge piles of cut brushwood and ivy you could usually find The Friends. They’d started their clear-up of the cemetery at the west end and had found several interesting graves. Carole pointed out one to me when I met her there: Lieutenant General – Robert Cannon – Behram Pacha
On the monument were listed honours given in the service of Spain and Turkey. Was this a “Flashman” character? That thought was quickly dispelled by the timeline of his military service and battles on the opposite side of the plinth. Below were listed grown children, two wives and an infant daughter, who had died in Constantinople…. Intrigued, I turned to the web and history books. There I struck lucky as a piece by Alice Barrigan, appeared as an online blog in “North Yorkshire History”, in 2020, mentioned Robert Cannon in an article about the village of Stokesley.
Robert was the son of the Rev. David Cannon, living a few miles north of Dundee, at Murroes. Aged 16 in 1827, he entered the Madras Army in southern India; which was one of the East India Company’s forces. In 1834 his regiment was involved in the short bloody campaign against the Raja of Coorg, however, it seems he was hoping for experience and promotion, so during 1835 took the chance to serve in northern Spain with the “British Auxiliary Legion”.
This ‘volunteer’ corps of militia were to support the Queen Isabella II & the Liberals in a civil war against the Carlists. Robert had been granted leave to join the 10,000 British fighting for young Queen Isabella, on Spain’s north coast, against her Uncle’s Carlist armies. Many officers, not in active service, had gone with ‘unemployed’ soldiers. Now 23, he raised a battalion of soldiers from Devon, and it seems the Navy carried them to Northern Spain, along with supporting Royal Artillery detachments. Cannon began as Major in the 6th Scotch Regiment and became Colonel of the 9th Royal Irish.
Much fighting was near San Sebastian, where many setbacks occurred. The Legion was in poor condition at the start of 1836, so was reformed with better arrangements for pay, clothing, food and military supplies. Often the Spanish seemed to expect them to ‘live off the land’. Occasional supplies came from the Navy and Royal Artillery.
In May 1837, the Legion took the stronghold at Hernani. Colonel Robert Cannon calmly scaled the walls & opened the gate for his troops, then led his men into the streets, thereby earning a “purse” for the first soldier to enter the town. John Humfrey & other RE / Staff Corps. officers swiftly got gaps in walls repaired and new earthworks made in case of counter attacks.
Conditions didn’t improve that much and Lt-Col. James Scott, Royal B.A.L. wrote to the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, commenting on the many soldiers in need of being repatriated to Britain. On June 30th 1837, passages were read in Parliament, including, “I feel it but justice to the gallant Colonel Cannon, of the 9th Regiment B.A.L., to state that he alone had his men embarked who wished to see their native homes; and gave them bills for their gratuity on board.”
Still the soldiers were rarely paid or reclothed. Diseases killed many soldiers, typhus taking its usual toll, some of whom were near starving. That winter the Legion ‘lost’ 2,000 men and 60 officers. Parliament brought ‘their mercenaries’ home in 1838.
Robert Cannon took part in 8 battles and 3 forcings of river crossings, in this civil war. The Spanish honours presented to Robert included: the ‘Military cross, first class, Order of St. Ferdinand’ (often called the Spanish V.C.), so he was a ‘Knight of St Ferdinand’ and also held the 2nd Class order of that Cross, plus the knightly Order of Charles lll.
Back in India, he was appointed a Commissioner in the territories of Mysore. Cannon’s name appears in newspapers as a director when the Southern Madras Railway Company was launched in 1846. Soon after, Robert returned to Britain. He became Colonel adjutant to the West Middlesex Militia. About this time, he met young Isabella Langford, perhaps “appearing an exotically decorated hero who had seen the world”. Robert, 35, and Isabella, 19, married on 28 July 1846 at St John’s, Paddington. Their home in Kensington Gardens Terrace was a few steps from Hyde Park, near St James Church. Those terraces were the epitome of Georgian architecture. Having three children, they maintained a household of two young nursemaids, a butler, cook and housemaid. A sad footnote from newspaper notices of 1851 is that a daughter was born while he and Isabella were in Boulogne, but died a few days later.
Then, in 1853, with unrest between Turkey and Russia, which feared mistreatment of Orthodox Christians by the Ottomans, Colonel R Cannon was recruited or maybe offered on ‘loan’ to the Turks, later meeting with Omar Pasha, their Serbian Commander-in-Chief. Robert and Isabella decided to take their family and household to Constantinople. Packed and ready to travel, tragedy struck, Isabella dying in January 1854. Aunt Amelia and her husband Rector Charles Cator, who had expected to see the family off on their journey, now found themselves leading the funeral at St Michael’s, Highgate. However, Robert must have decided to take his family with him to Turkey, as sadly his 3 year old, Amy, died in Constantinople; her remains later brought to be with her mother in England.
Newspapers of the time list officers who set out with Cannon, some of whom didn’t continue with the venture. Given the title Behram Pasha, Robert commanded a Turkish brigade in the Army of the Danube, fighting across what is now northern Bulgaria. He saw much action and was remembered in the British press for his part in raising the siege of Silistria, the fortress on the Danube. (Writer and artillery officer, Leo Tolstoy, was in the opposing force.) Robert Cannon followed this by taking a leading part in the crossing of the Danube river, his brigade quickly making a defensive position to repel counter attacks. His action protected following units as they crossed.
Russian armies withdrew from Romania and negotiated a peace with the Turkish Sultan, but this was not to be. The British and French forces, racked by cholera, had only just landed in Bulgaria, so had not had a chance to join battle. Palmerston and Louis Napoleon wanted to have victories and seriously weaken their old ally, so the war continued with the invasion of Crimea.
Cannon’s brigade occupied the old port of Eupatoria, to the north of the first landing site, and guarded this flank for months while the main armies moved south to start the long siege of Sebastopol. He had 10,000 infantry to command plus artillery and some cavalry squadrons. He now ranked as ‘Ferik’ or lieutenant general.
After the crippling winter of 1854 / 55, Cannon’s troops joined with French forces at the siege, taking part in repulsing the final Russian attempts to relieve the stricken city. (Once again under fire from artillery officer Leo Tolstoy, who disillusioned, was preparing to write his great novel.) With the final month of bombardment, the population fled across the pontoon bridge and into the countryside. The city burned after the final assaults and the port facilities were dismantled. A peace treaty was signed, much like that suggested 18 months before.
There are newspaper reports of Robert Cannon being presented to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at St James’s Palace during a Levee. There are also hints that he was asked to speak to the royal couple about his time in the Crimea. In September 1856 British dignitaries headed a gathering of 450 at Portsmouth, mostly Officers in dress uniform who had been in the Crimea. It was an evening of speeches and toasts. Robert caused quite a colourful stir as “he wore the dress of a Turkish Pasha, the front of his coat literally covered with orders and decorations”.
Letters from Cannon to the British commander, Lord Raglan, are lodged in Kew’s archives. Robert received the Order of the Medjidie from the Sultan for his services. Queen Victoria gave him the honorary rank of Lieutenant-General in the British Army during 1856, then in 1858, confirmed that he could use foreign insignia on his uniform, another great honour.
In the spring of 1858, Robert married Emma Beevor Ronald, in the Marylebone district. Robert was 47 and Emma 26. She became stepmother to 9 year old Robert and Mary, 5. First child of this second marriage was Ronald in 1859, followed by Laura, then Emma Rowena, all born in London, in the early 1860s.
Their move to Folkestone came around this time, and in the 1871 census they are living at No 5 Park Villas, Manor Road. Their household includes a governess for the two girls, two housemaids, a cook and a lady’s maid (born Finisterre, Brittany). Isabella Mary was now 18 (Confusingly, the girls often swapped their names around.) was at home, but sons Robert and Ronald are out in the wider world; presumably the younger training for a military career.
Also buried in the family vault are Robert’s first wife Isabella and his infant daughter Amy. Their remains were transferred from Highgate to Folkestone. There is no official record of their burial, but I don’t imagine that this Lt. General would let paperwork stand in his way. His own newspaper obituaries featured phrases such as,” General Cannon, the renowned of Silistria.”
So, what started with clearing an old grave has led to an intriguing insight into Robert Cannon’s and his family’s stories.
Rob Moody & Friends of Folkestone Old Cemetery
