HEREDITY.
[To 1111 EDITOR OF THE e spas-rams:9 SIR,—The following may be of interest to those who believe• in heredity, and that "the pride of the sword " passee from father:to son. The Times mentions that at the recent inspec- tion of the Royal Woolwich Academy by the Adjutant- General, the cadets, some two hundred and sixty in number, marched past under the command of the senior under-officer, Alan Algernon Durand, who received the sword of honour for exemplary conduct, besides another prize. Two generations ago Henry Marion Durand, the grandfather of Mr. A. A. Durand, was under-officer at Addiscombe, and received there the sword of honour. Later, as a lieutenant of Engineers, he blew up the gates of Ghuzni, and was afterwards well known as General Sir Henry Durand, Member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, and Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub, where he died through a lamentable accident whilst on a tour of duty in that province. He married a, daughter of General Sir John McCaakil, of the Isle of Skye, a Highland general, who fell commanding his division at the battle of Moodkee. Their son is the present Colonel Sir Edward Durand, Bart., C.B., who married a daughter of Mr. Algernon Heber-Percy, nephew of a former Duke of Northumberland, a family which also has given many soldiers to the State. Sir Edward's son is the Woolwich cadet above noticed. Of his other sons, Mr. Edward Durand was selected in India to• be aide-de-camp to Field-Marshal Lord Nicholson, and returned to England with that distinguished officer. The second son is a lieutenant in the Central India Horse, the third being now at Woolwich, whilst the youngest is a cadet at Osborne and was page to his kinsman, the Duke of Northumberland, at the recent Coronation. Of General Sir Henry Durand's sons, the eldest is Sir Edward, above- mentioned. The second, the Right Honourable Sir Mortimer Durand, G.C.M.G., &c., was Political Secretary to Lord Roberts during the Afghan campaign, and later Ambassador at Madrid and Washington. His only son, Major Hal Durand, was Adjutant of the 9th Lancers, and now p.s.c. Brigade-Major of Cavalry at Canterbury. The youngest son of General Sir Henry, Colonel Algernon Durand, C.B., C.I.E., commanded the Hunawagar expedition, in which he was dangerously wounded, and is now one of his Majesty's Gentlemen-at-Arms. His son is still at Eton. Not a bad record of a family which has given its sons to the service of
its country and its King.—I am, Sir, &c., OIITIS.
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