DONKIN, Sir Rufane Shaw (1773-1841), of 33 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, London, Mdx.

A distinguished army officer with literary and parliamentary ambitions, Donkin had been born into a respectable Northumbrian family of Scottish descent, and at the age of five, been entered into the army by his father, who then held the rank of major in the 44th Foot.1H.M. Chichester, ‘Donkin, Sir Rufane Shaw (1773-1841)’, rev. J. Sweetman, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. His first service was in the West Indies in 1793, where he was involved in the capture of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Lucia, and after commanding a light battalion at Ostend in 1798, he fought in the Peninsular campaigns under the duke of Wellington, commanding a brigade at the battle of Talavera in 1808, for which he received the gold medal. In 1815 he was appointed to a command at Madras, from which he was subsequently transferred to the Bengal presidency, and was appointed KCB in 1818 for his military services.2Ibid.; W. Jerden, National portrait gallery of illustrious and eminent personages of the nineteenth century (1832), 217-27.

After the death of his first wife in 1818, Donkin, suffering mental distress, was invalided to the Cape where, following his recovery, he assumed the governorship of the colony during the absence of Lord Charles Somerset in 1820. Although his tenure was brief, he gained plaudits for his decision to diverge from Somerset’s policies for the establishment of settlers. Upon resuming his post, however, Somerset reversed Donkin’s decisions.3E.A. Walker, The Cambridge history of the British empire (1963), vii. 238-252. After returning to England, Donkin, in private correspondence, attacked Somerset for the ‘total subversion of all I had done’ and subsequently published a critique of his governorship.4Sir R.S. Donkin, A letter on the Cape of Good Hope, and certain events which occurred there under Lord Charles Somerset (1827). After a failed attempt to enter parliament as member for Stockbridge at the 1826 general election, Donkin concentrated on literary pursuits. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he wrote for the Quarterly Review and the Literary Gazette, and in 1829 published A dissertation on the course and probable termination of the Niger, which, although challenged for some of its assumptions, earned him a reputation as ‘an excellent scholar, of a clear, logical and comprehensive mind’.5Quarterly Review, lxxxi (1829), 226.

Connected to the region by his ancestry, at the 1832 general election Donkin offered as a Liberal for Berwick-upon-Tweed, where, following a fractious contest, he topped the poll. A frequent attender in his first Parliament, he followed the Whigs into the division lobby on most major issues, and, after his return in second place at the 1835 general election, voted for Abercromby as speaker, 19 Feb. 1835, and for Russell’s motion on Irish church appropriation, 2 Apr. 1835.6Parliamentary test book (1835), 49. On 20 April 1835 he was appointed surveyor-general of the ordnance, with responsibility for overseeing the supply of munitions for the army, whereupon he was re-elected without opposition, 27 Apr. 1835.727 Apr. 1835. Thereafter, he was a loyal supporter of Melbourne’s ministry, particularly its Irish policy, and he voted against the ballot, 23 June 1836.

As an expert on military matters, Donkin confined his handful of known speeches to addressing army issues. He spoke in favour of retaining military flogging, stating that although the best ‘way to preserve discipline in the army was to appeal to the moral feelings of the soldiers’, if that failed, the only other method ‘was to have recourse to physical suffering’, 2 Apr. 1833. He also intervened in debates on supply, opposing any reductions in the army estimates, 3 Mar. 1834, 22 May 1835, reiterating the position he had previously outlined as a witness on the 1833 select committee on military appointments.8PP 1833 (650), vii. 67-9. As a member and witness on the 1834 select committee on colonial military expenditure, he also argued against any further cuts at the Cape, stressing the importance of a strong garrison.9PP 1834 (570), vi. 132-4; PP 1835 (473), vi. 2. His experience as governor of that colony was brought to the fore again during the 1836 select committee on aborigines in British settlements, where he was an assiduous questioner regarding the treatment of natives in the Cape.10PP 1836 (538), vii. 2; PP 1837 (425), vii. 2.

At the 1837 general election Donkin, who was roundly criticised for his vote to remove the rights of freemen in the government’s municipal corporation bill, 23 June 1835, endured a hostile campaign and was defeated by two Conservative candidates.11M.J. Wickham, ‘Electoral politics in Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1832-1885’, unpublished MPhil thesis, Univ. Of Durham (2002), 56. He was returned without opposition, however, for a vacancy at Sandwich in February 1839, following the appointment of the sitting member, Sir James Carnac, as the governor of Bombay.12Morning Chronicle, 14 Feb. 1839. In his first session back in the Commons, he was in the minority for Villiers’ motion to consider the corn laws, 18 Mar. 1839, but after a dutiful start, his attendance dropped dramatically in 1840 due to ill health, and he made no known speeches as MP for Sandwich.

By the beginning of 1841, Donkin’s poor health had precipitated a severe depression, and he was unable to discharge his duties as surveyor-general. After arriving in Southampton in April that year for a change of air, he hanged himself at his apartment on 1 May, with the coroner returning a verdict of temporary insanity.13Morning Post, 3 May, 4 May 1841. He was succeeded by his only son, George David. Although Donkin’s parliamentary career pales in comparison with his illustrious rise through the ranks of the British army, his suggestion, made whilst surveyor-general, that the civil business of the board of ordnance be transferred to the war office was realised in 1855.14Chichester, rev. Sweetman, ‘Donkin, Sir Rufane Shaw’. His correspondence relating to military matters, all from the pre-Reform era, is located in the British Library, London.