Background
Born in Corfu, he was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby.
General military private secretary Major
Born in Corfu, he was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby.
He entered the army on 27 December 1842 as an ensign in the 49th Regiment of Foot. Transferred to the Grenadier Guards, he became a lieutenant on 16 February 1844, captain on 18 July 1848, and major on 19 October 1849. From 1847 to 1858 he was aide-de-camp to Lord Clarendon and Lord Saint Germans, successively lord-lieutenants of Ireland.
After the peace he was appointed equerry to Albert, Prince Consort, who greatly valued his services.
On 2 August 1860 he became colonel, and in 1862, after the death of the prince, he was sent to Canada in command of a battalion of the Grenadier Guards which was stationed in the colony during the American Civil War. On 6 March 1868 he became a major-general.
His letters bore addresses appearing as doodled signposts in snowstorms or as huge envelopes shouldered by tiny people. He served as Keeper of the Privy Purse and Private Secretary to Queen Victoria.
On 6 January 1895 he was attacked by paralysis.
In May he retired from his offices, and on 21 November he died at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. He was buried at Whippingham. Mary Elizabeth Bulteel, Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria and a daughter of John Crocker Bulteel (1793-1843) Member of Parliament. The couple had five children:
Alberta Victoria Ponsonby (6 May 1862-1815 October 1945)
Magdalen Ponsonby (24 June 1864-1861 July 1934)
John Ponsonby (25 March 1866 – 26 March 1952)
Frederick Edward Grey Ponsonby (16 September 1867 – 20 October 1935)
Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby (16 February 1871 – 24 March 1946).
He served through the Crimean campaigns of 1855-1856, becoming lieutenant-colonel on 31 August 1855; for the action before Sebastopol he received a medal with clasp, the Turkish medal, and the Order of the Medjidie, 3rd Class. His son Arthur wrote a biography of him which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1942: Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria"s Private Secretary: His Life from His Letters.
