Thomas Montagu Steele
Sir Thomas Montagu Steele was a British army officer.Life
As the eldest son of Major-General Thomas Steele and Lady Elizabeth Montagu, second daughter of the fifth duke of Manchester, he attended Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before being commissioned as an ensign in the 64th foot in January 1838. Exchanging into the Coldstream Guards on 20 July that year, he served as aide-de-camp to the governor of Madras rose to lieutenant in 1844, captain later that year and brevet lieutenant-colonel in 1851. Promoted to brevet colonel in 1854, he served as Lord Raglan and his successor's military secretary.
His rewards for his Crimean War service were promotion to brevet colonel and aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, appointment as a commander of the Order of the Bath, the Order of the Mejidiye, the Légion d'honneur, and the order of St Maurice and St Lazarus. He married his first wife Isabel Fitzgerald in 1856 and, on her death 2 years later, he remarried in 1865 to the American Rosalie Malvina McCarty of New York. Steele was promoted to the substantive rank of major in 1860 and the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel in 1862 before retiring to half pay on 24 November 1863. He was promoted to major-general in 1865 and then commanded the troops in the Dublin district. Promoted to lieutenant general in 1874, he commanded the Aldershot Division and, having been promoted to full general in 1877, he commanded the British forces in Ireland, finally retiring in 1887. He died in 1890 and was survived by his second wife.Honours
