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SIR DAY BOSANQUET. Admiral Sir Day Hort Bosanquot, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., died, we regret to announce, on Thursday, at the Old Vicarage, Newbury, aged 80.
The Admiral was an officer of marked ability who held several important commands, and after he reached flag rank he seemed one of the indispensable men of the Navy. But, apart from the Governorship of South Australia, in which he was conspicuously successful, fortune was niggardly in opportunities of public service.
The Bosanquets descend from an old Huguenot family of Languedoc. Sir Day's younger brother, Dr. Bernard Bosanquet, the philosopher, died last February; his nephew, Robert Carr Bosanquet, the archaeologist, is known for his excavations in Crete and Sparta; Sir F.A. Bosanquet, K.C., is a kinsman. The third son of the Rev. R.W. Bosanquet, of Rock Hall, Northumberland, he was born on March 22, 1843, and entered the Navy in 1857, being on the active list lor fifty one years. As a midshipman he served under Sir James Hope in China, was present at the taking of Canton and the Peiho forts, and was specially promoted for the high place he took in passing for lieutenant. He next served under Sir Geoffrey Hornby in the flying squadron of 1869-70, and was then selected as senior lieutenant in charge of the cadets in the sea-going training ships Bristol and Ariadne from 1870 to 1872. His promotion to commander was from the Royal yacht, and he was then given the Doris, one of the ships which formed the escort to the Serapis, in which vessel King Edward, then Prince of Wales, went to India. Three years as captain were passed in charge of the harbour training establishments, and in May, 1897, he was advanced to flag rank. He hoisted his flag three times — in the East Indies from 1899 to 1902, on the North America and West Indies station and in the seagoing training squadron from 1904 to 1907, and as commander-in-chief at Portsmouth until his retirement. He did good work in suppressing the slave trade and gun-running during his command of the East Indies Station. A considerable weight of responsibility rested on his shoulders during these years, for, with the Commander-in-Chief at the Cape, he had to prevent the importation of arms by the Boers through Lorenzo Marques. After he had hauled down his flag at Portsmouth In 1908, he was appointed Governor of South Australia, a post which he held till 1914. Two other admirals were Governors in Australia at the time — Sir Harry Rawson, of New South Wales, and Sir Frederick Bedford of Western Australia. Sir Day brought to his duties the right qualities or common sense, dignity, and geniality of manner, and he and his family became very popular in the State. On his retirement from the Governorship he was created G.C.M.G., and K.C.B. in 1915; he had been made G.C.V.O. in 1907. He married, in 1881, Mary, daughter of Colonel T. Bromhead Butt, by whom he had two daughters, one of whom is the wife of Captain Raymond Fitzmaurice, D.S.0., R.N. His only son, Major G.B. Bosanquet, M.C. and Legion of Honour, was killed in action in 1916. The Times, 30 June 1923.⁴

He joined the Gloucestershire Regiment as second lieutenant in January, 1907, was promoted to captain in October, 1914 and made brevet major in 1916. He had been twice mentioned in dispatches during the war, and in June 1915 he was awarded the Military Cross, and in the following November he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He was holding the position of adjutant to the 7th Highland Light Infantry when war broke out, but he rejoined his own regiment in October 1914, and was adjutant of it up January 1916. He was subsequently appointed brigade major, had been twice badly wounded in December 1914 and May 1915. Killed in Action On 1st July 1916, about 300 yards from the Sunken Road Major Bosanquet went over the open ground towards Crucifix Trench. He was hit by fire from a machine gun and died instantly.^6,7