Rafael Cerero Y Saenz (1831-1906)
1907 Obituary [1]
LIEUT.-GENERAL RAFAEL CERERO Y SAENZ, of the Spanish Royal Engineers, died at Madrid on the 29th March, 1906, aged 74.
Born on the 13th November, 1831, he was educated at the School of Military Engineering, and in 1852 received his commission as lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He served with merit and distinction at home and abroad, and saw active service as commanding officer of the Royal Engineers both in Cuba and the Philippine Islands, attaining the rank of lieutenant-general of the Spanish Army in 1889.
During the course of his military career, he was employed on many special missions and on the construction of roads, buildings and military defence works in Spain and her over-sea possessions, for which various orders and distinctions were conferred upon him. He visited other countries at the request of the Spanish Government in order to investigate and report on progress in land and marine artillery, and was appointed one of the Cuban Commissioners at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876.
After his return from military service abroad, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Defence and President of several military commissions.
In 1896 he carried out a tour of inspection of the fortified towns of the Peninsula. He was one of the plenipotentiaries appointed to conduct the peace negociations with the United States in 1898.
In 1902 he became first military aide-decamp to the King and chief of the royal military household, and in November of the following year, having reached the limit of age, he was transferred to the reserve. Of studious habits and an accomplished linguist.
General Cerero was the author of many valuable memoirs on subjects connected with both military and civil engineering.
He was elected an Associate of The Institution on the 7th February, 1865.