Frank Rhodes (British Army officer)

Colonel Francis William Rhodes, CB, DSO (9 April 1851–21 September 1905), better known as "Frank", is perhaps the best known member of the Rhodes family after his brother Cecil. Trained as a soldier from his youth, he participated in a considerable amount of conflict in different parts of the world. After graduating from Sandhurst, he joined the 1st Royal Dragoons in 1873 and served the British Army for 23 years. He participated in the Sudan Campaign, accompanied the Nile Expedition to Khartoum in the abortive effort to relieve General Charles George Gordon, and was present at the battles of El Teb and Tamai. At the Battle of Abu Klea, he distinguished himself when he had several horses shot from under him in the course of the engagement. He was awarded several medals and clasps, including the Distinguished Service Order.

Rhodes filled various staff appointments. From 1890-93, he served as military secretary to Lord Harris while he was Governor of Bombay, and in 1893 he was chief of staff on Sir Gerald Herbert Portal's mission to Uganda. Rhodes also served for a brief period as Administrator of Mashonaland and as the appointed military member of the council of four in the government of Matabeleland under Leander Starr Jameson.

In perhaps the most trying event in his career, Rhodes served as a leading member of the Reform Committee (Transvaal), in Johannesburg, attempting to liberalize the government of Transvaal Republic President Paul Kruger on behalf of the Uitlander population living in Transvaal. Following the Jameson Raid in November 1895, the members of the Reform Committee were charged with high treason for their collaboration with Jameson. Rhodes, John Hays Hammond, and other leaders of the Committee were sentenced to death in April 1896, only this sentence was later commuted to 15 years’ imprisonment. In June 1896, all members of the Committee were released on payment of a heavy fine. As a punishment for his support of Jameson the British Army placed Rhodes on the retired list and barred him from active involvement in army business. After his release from jail, he immediately joined his brother Cecil and the British South Africa Company in Second Matabele War.

In 1898 he joined Field Marshal Earl Kitchener’s Nile expedition as war correspondent for The Times. At the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September he was shot and severely wounded in the right arm. For his services during that campaign he was restored to the army active list. During the Second Boer War, Rhodes continued to work as a war correspondent. He was trapped for the duration in the Siege of Ladysmith and participated in the relief of Mafeking.

In 1899, he was sued by a man named Burrows for falsely representing the purpose of the raid and therefore convincing him to participate in the raid, wherein he lost a leg. His suit for £3000 in damages was successful.^[1]

With the death of his brother Cecil in 1902, Frank took possession of Dalham Hall, and erected a hall in the village in Cecil's memory.^[2][3] After retiring from the Army in 1903, he served as managing director of the African Trans-Continental Telegraph Company until his death in 1905.

References

• Cecil Rhodes: A Study of a Career, by Howard Hensman, William Backwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London (1911)
• The truth about the Jameson raid, by John Hays Hammond (1918)