hold that post since the Crimean War. On 10 October 1870 he was appointed colonel of the 70th Regiment of Foot, an office he held for the remainder of his life. Last years in politics Entering politics in 1870, Storks was endorsed as the Liberal candidate at a parliamentary by-election for the Borough of Newark that followed the death of the sitting Liberal MP. Unfortunately he was opposed by progressive liberal and colonial administrator Sir George Grey, who had previously been governor of South Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony, standing as an independent liberal. Grey's extremist views on the questions of the Colonial Empire, of emigration, of Home Rule for Ireland and the cause of the English poor were contrary to the interests of Gladstone's Liberal government. Determined that Grey should not be elected and seeing that splitting the liberal vote would result in both Grey and Storks losing to the Conservative candidate, the Liberal government engineered an arrangement where both would withdraw, leaving another Liberal candidate, Samuel Boteler Bristowe, to take the seat. Storks was rewarded with the newly revived post of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance and Grey returned to New Zealand later that year. The following year Storks was elected to parliament at the Ripon by-election. He was promoted lieutenant general on 25 October 1871. While in Parliament, he spoke in favor of the abolition of the purchase system for Army commissions. His stance on the Contagious Diseases Acts contributed to his defeat by the Earl de Grey in the 1874 general election. He died shortly after losing the election, on 6 September 1874. He was buried in the Western part of Highgate Cemetery. References External links |- |- 1811 births 1874 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery British Army generals Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Charterhouse School Governors of Jamaica UK MPs 1868–1874 West Yorkshire Regiment officers 61st Regiment of Foot officers Governors and Governors-General of Malta