progress the following year (1844), Aberdeen dispatched an additional 14 sappers from London; that year Estcourt would employ 500 foremen and axe-men. Parliamentary career In February 1848 he entered parliament as M.P. for Devizes, the family borough, but did not seek re-election in 1852. He served as a . Estcourt applied for a staff appointment in the Crimean expedition. Although he had had no experience of actual warfare, he had recently completed the demarcation of the southern border of New Brunswick, a task that had seen him direct in a harsh environment over 500 men. On 21 February 1854 he was made a brigadier-general, and appointed adjutant-general to the expeditionary force. He owed this important post to the support given to his application by his friend Lord Raglan, who believed that his polished and gentle manners concealed real strength of character. As adjutant-general he performed his duties efficiently during the weary months of waiting and sickness at Gallipoli and at Varna, and also at the battles of Alma and Inkerman. He was promoted major-general on 12 December 1854. Savage criticism The two chief staff officers, Generals Estcourt and Airey, were held by the public to be especially responsible for the sufferings of the British Army during the first winter in the Crimea; but Lord Raglan defended them in the strongest terms in his despatches of 15 January and 3 March 1855. Estcourt, like Airey, went on steadily with his work, despite adverse circumstances and savage criticism, until 21 June 1855, when he was suddenly struck down by cholera. He at first rallied, but the thunderstorm of 23 June caused a relapse, and he died on the morning of 24 June. Death His death was universally regretted. Hamley writes that he was 'a man of remarkably kind and courteous disposition', and Kinglake speaks of him as 'a man greatly loved by Lord Raglan, by all his friends at headquarters, and indeed by all who knew him'. Lord Raglan was afraid to attend the funeral, for fear of showing his grief; but the last visit he paid before his own death, was to Estcourt's tomb. It was announced in the 'Gazette' of 10 July 1855 that Estcourt would have been made a K.C.B. if he had survived. His widow, who had courageously spent the winter in camp, and had been by her husband's deathbed, was raised to the rank of a K.C.B.'s