Major Robert John Eagar
(1811-1894)

[This portrait does not appear in any of the volumes of the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery in London.]

Born in 1812 at Clifton in Gloucestershire, Robert John Eagar was baptised on 9 April 1812 at St Augustin-the-Less, Bristol. His father was Major Francis Russell Eagar of Listry, Kilbonane, County Kerry, who died at Kernaul in modern-day Pakistan in 1832. Like his father before him, he joined the 31st (The Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot, eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant-General.

According to the 1891 census, he never married. He died on 23 October 1894, aged 82, at 4 Duke Street, London, leaving an estate valued at £3994. 

An obituary appeared the following week in Homeward Mail from India, China and the East (29 October 1894). 'On Tuesday, Oct. 23, Lieutenant-General Robert John Eagar, C.B., colonel of the Dorsetshire Regiment, and late colonel the 31st Foot, died in Duke Street, St James’s. Entering the Army as ensign on June 11, 1830, he became captain in 1844, major in 1855, colonel in 1866, major-general in 1870, lieutenant-general in 1881, and colonel of the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1892. In the course of his long career Lieutenant-General Eagar saw a considerable amount of service. In 1842 he served with the 31st Regiment in the campaign in Afghanistan, being present at the actions of Mazeena, Tezeen, and Jugdallock, the occupation of Cabul, and the different engagements leading up to it. Proceeding to the Crimea in June 1855, he served as brigade-major of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, from Aug. 19, 1855, to Jan. 17, 1856, and was present at the siege and fall of Sebastopol and the attacks of June 18 and Sept. 8. Later he served throughout the campaign in the North of China in 1860, and was present at the action of Sinho and the storming of Tangku, and finally he commanded the 31st Regiment in the operations against the Taeping rebels in 1862, including the recapture of Khading. Lieutenant-General Eagar held the medal for the Afghanistan Campaign of 1842, the Crimean medal and clasp, and Turkish medal, and a medal and clasp for the Taku Forts. He was also a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and a member of the Fifth Class of the Order of the Medjidieh.' 

The Kerry Evening Post (14 November 1894) reprinted the above obituary, with one additional paragraph. 'General Eagar was the elder son of our gallant county man, the late Major Francis Russell Eagar, who served with distinction in the 31st Regiment at Talavera, Salamanca, Waterloo, and other engagements in the Peninsula, and died when in command of his regiment, in India in 1832. A monument has been erected to his memory by the officers, non-commissioned officers, drummers and privates of the Regiment.'