William Greathed

Major-General William Wilberforce Harris Greathed (21 December 1826 – 29 December 1878) was a British senior officer in the Bengal Engineers. He was born in Paris, the youngest of five sons of Edward Greathed and Mary Elizabeth Glyn of Uddens House, Wimborne, Dorset. One of his brothers was General Sir Edward Harris Greathed. He entered the Addiscombe military college of the East India Company in February 1843, and received a commission on 9 December 1844. In 1846, he went to India, and was attached to the Bengal Sappers and Miners at Meerut. The following year he was appointed to the irrigation department of the North-west Provinces, but on the outbreak of the Second Sikh War in 1848, he was sent to join the field force at the Siege of Multan. He was the first officer through the breach in the final assault. He was also present at the Battle of Gujrat on 21 February 1849. After two years leave in England he was appointed executive engineer in the public works department at Barrackpore and in 1855 was sent to Allahabad as government consulting engineer in connection with the extension of the East India Railway to the upper provinces.