Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, (5 November 1843 – 3 November 1910) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. He is chiefly remembered for overseeing the Benin Expedition of 1897, a British punitive expedition against the Kingdom of Benin (in modern-day Nigeria). Rawson's force looted and burned the palace, exiled the Oba, and plundered a large number of the Benin Bronzes and other royal treasures. Rawson was appointed Governor of New South Wales, serving from 27 May 1902 to 27 May 1909. Early life Harry Rawson was born at Walton-on-Hill, Lancashire, on 5 November 1843, the son of Christopher Rawson, of a landed gentry family of The Haugh End and Mill House. He was educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy and at Marlborough College. In October 1871 in Cheshire, England, he married Florence Alice Stewart Shaw, daughter of John Ralph Shaw, of Arrowe Park, Cheshire. The couple had five children. He was a long-standing Freemason, and served as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Military service Rawson joined the Royal Navy in 1857 and took part in the capture of the Taku Forts in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Promoted to captain in 1877, he was given command of . He was the Principal Transport Officer during the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882. Then, in 1883, he was made Flag Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet and, in 1885, he was appointed captain of the steam reserve at Devonport. He returned to sea as captain of in 1889. Admiral Rawson was appointed commander of British naval forces at the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station in 1895 and held that post at the time of the Benin Expedition which was regarded in British circles largely as a stroke of disciplined and coordinated planning: In twenty-nine days a force of 1,200 men, coming from three places between 3000 and 4500 m. from the Benin river, was landed, organized, equipped and provided with transport. Five days later the city of Benin was taken, and in twelve days more the men were re-embarked, and the ships coaled and ready for any further service. Rawson was also the commanding officer of the British forces in the Anglo-Zanzibar War, the shortest war in history, which lasted for 38 minutes on 27 August 1896. For this he was made a Knight