Henry Lake

Sir Henry Atwell Lake (25 December 1808 – 17 August 1881) was a colonel of the Royal Engineers in England. Lake was the third son of Sir James Samuel William Lake, 4th Baronet, by his marriage with Maria, daughter of Samuel Turner. He was born at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, in 1808. His elder brother James became the fifth Lake baronet upon their father's death in 1832. Admiral Sir Willoughby Lake was his uncle. Lake was educated at Harrow and at the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe. On 15 December 1826, he obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the Madras engineers, and went to India. Until 1854 he was employed in the public works department of India, and principally upon irrigation works. He became lieutenant on 4 March 1831, brevet-captain on 22 July 1840, regimental captain in 1852, and brevet-major 20 June 1854. While in England on leave of absence in 1854 he volunteered his services for the Crimean War, and was sent to Kars, in Anatolia, as chief engineer, and second in command to Colonel (afterwards Sir) William Fenwick Williams. He became lieutenant-colonel on 9 February 1855. He strengthened the fortifications of Kars, and took a very prominent part in the defence, including the repulse of the Russian forces under General Mouravieff on 29 September 1855. On the capitulation of Kars he was sent, with the other British officers, as a prisoner of war to Russia, where he remained until the proclamation of peace in 1856.