Henry de Bury

For the monk, see Henry de Bury (monk).
Henry Robert Visart de Bury et de Bocarmé
Born 1872
Constance, Germany
Died 1958
Quebec, Quebec
Allegiance Canada British
Service/branch Royal Regiment of Artillery
Years of service 1892-1913
Rank Colonel (ret'd) Count
Commands held Director of Canadian Ordnance Services, France.
Awards CBE,
Other work professor, Director of Canadian Ordnance Services

Colonel Count Henry Robert Visart de Bury et de Bocarmé CBE (Constance, Germany, 11 June 1872 - Montreal, 31 July 1958) was a Canadian officer, member of the Belgian nobility, academic, and Director of Canadian Ordnance Services, France.

Education

Henry was a career officer of the British and Canadian armies. He was educated in Stoneyhurst, England. He studied at the Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario Canada, class of 1892, student #268 where he later taught from 1905 to 1910.

Family

He and his wife Agnes Mary Robertson (1870-1962), had two daughters Valérie (°1899) and Joan (°1905). The couple lived in Artillery Park, Quebec, Quebec

Military service

He was Aide-de-camp to the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, 1912-16. He entered the Royal Regiment of Artillery, in 1892. He was promoted to Captain in 1900. He was Garrison Adjutant in St. Lucia from 1902-05. He was Professor of Mathematics at The Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario from 1905-10. He was gazetted a brevet major in 1910.

On November 19, 1910, he received Royal License to use the title of Count in the British Realms.[1]

He retired from the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1911. He joined the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps in 1911. He was a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding a Canadian Field Artillery Brigade, Expeditionary Force during the First World War, and later became director of Canadian ordnance service in France during the First World War. He served as Director of Dominion Arsenals from 1920 to 1936. In 1936, he retired as a Colonel. He rejoined the army in 1940 and served as district ordnance officer for the duration of the Second World War and retired in 1946.[2] He was awarded a CBE.[3] He was elected president of Royal Military College Club of Canada in 1913.

Family

The title of count had been granted to Colonel Louis-François Visart, lord of Bury and Bocarmé, by the Empress Maria-Theresa on 5 September 1753.[4]

The title was later confirmed (1822) and has remained in the family ever since.

Bury, Péruwelz, Belgium

The Bury estates are in the municipality of Péruwelz, province of Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium.

Henry was the eldest son and heir of Count Robert Visart de Bury de Bocarmé (1845-1907), a Belgian nobleman, representative descendant of a distinguished family, who emigrated to Canada. His grandfather however, was the convicted and executed murderer Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé (1818-1851).

Count Robert Visart de Bury, of Bury in Péruwelz, Belgium and St. John, New Brunswick, a civil engineer, studied at the Episcopal College of Mecheln, in Belgium, at the University of Zurich and at the Polytechnic School of Stuttgart in Württemberg. He was employed as a civil engineer by the Orléans Railway Company and by the Government of Württemberg in the survey of the Black Forest Railway. He married Miss Simonds of St. John, New Brunswick. The couple came to New Brunswick in 1873, and lived in Portland, New Brunswick and Bury, Belgium. He served as Belgian Consul for the Province of New Brunswick and Consular Agent for France at St. John. He served as a member of the Town Council of Portland.[5]

Literature

Military service

Family

References

  1. Whitehall, November 19, 1910. "The King has been pleased to give and grant unto Henry Robert Visart de Bury, Esquire, Captain in His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Artillery, eldest son and heir of Robert Gonzalès Dieudonné Ferdinand Visart, Count Visart de Bury and de Bocarmé, who was eldest surviving son and heir of Alfred Julien Gabriel Hippolyte Visart de Bury and de Bocarmé, who was eldest son of Marie Philippe Joseph Julien Visart Count Visart de Bury and de Bocarmé sometime Governor of the Island of Java, son of Marie Dieudonné Louis Joseph Gustave Visart, Count Visart de Bury and de Bocarmé, son of Louis François Visart Count de Bury and de Bocarmé all deceased, His Royal Licence and Authority that he and the heirs male of his body in succession (being respectively subjects of His Majesty's Realms) upon whom the title of Count de Bury and de Bocarmé shall descend may bear and use the said title of Count in this Country in the manner declared in the Letters Patent or Diploma granted by Her Majesty the Empress Maria Thérèse to the said Louis François Visart and bearing date the fifth day of September, One thousand seven hundred and fifty-three. And to Command that the said Royal concession and especial mark of Royal favour together with the said Letters Patent or Diploma be registered in the College of Arms." http://www.visart.be/robert_son_histoire.htm LG 13 Dec 1910, issue 28446 p.1.
  2. http://www.visart.be/henri_-_5a.htm Henry de Bury
  3. http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/H.R.VisartDeBury-QuebecHistory.htm Prominent People of the Province of Quebec, 1923-24, Montreal, Biographical Society of Canada, Limited, undated and unpaginated
  4. http://www.visart.be/robert_son_histoire.htm Count Henry Robert Visart de Bury et de Bocarmé
  5. https://archive.org/stream/acadiensisquarte00jackuoft/acadiensisquarte00jackuoft_djvu.txt Count Robert Visart deBury
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