General Sir Harry Burrard, 1st Baronet (1 June 1755 – 17 October 1813) was a British soldier who fought in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and in the Peninsular War.
General Sir Harry Burrard, 1st Baronet (1 June 1755 – 17 October 1813) was a British soldier who fought in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and in the Peninsular War.
Burrard was born at Walhampton on 1 June 1755, the elder son of George Burrard of Walhampton, Hampshire, who was the third son of Paul Burrard, M.P. for Lymington from 1706 to 1736, and younger brother of Sir Harry Burrard, M.P. for Lymington from 1741 to 1784 and created a baronet in 1769. [1]
Burrard became an ensign in the Coldstream Guards in 1772. He was promoted lieutenant and captain in 1773, and in 1777 exchanged into the 60th Foot, in order to see service in the American War of Independence. With his regiment he served under Sir William Howe in 1778 and 1779 [1] —He was captured during a raid on the Bruges canal in 1798. He led the 2nd Brigade during the 1799 Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, fighting at the battles of Bergen, Egmont and Castricum.[ citation needed ] In 1780 returned to England on being elected M.P. for Lymington through the influence of his uncle Sir Harry. He served under Lord Cornwallis in America in 1781 and 1782. [1]
After peace had been declared he returned to the guards in 1786 as lieutenant and captain in the grenadier guards, and was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel in 1789. With the guards he served in Flanders from 1793 to 1795, and was promoted colonel in 1795, and major-general in 1798. In 1804 he became lieutenant-colonel commanding the 1st Foot Guards, and in 1805 he was promoted lieutenant-general. [1]
In 1807 he received his first command in the expedition to Copenhagen under Lord Cathcart, when he commanded the 1st Division, and as senior general under Cathcart acted as second in command. He had very little to do in the expedition; yet on his return he was created a baronet, and also made governor of Calshot Castle. [1]
In 1808 he was selected to supersede Sir Arthur Wellesley. He arrived on the coast of Portugal on 19 August, and wisely decided not to interfere with Sir Arthur Wellesley's arrangements. On 21 August Junot attacked Sir Arthur's position at Vimeiro, and was successfully beaten off, and the English general had just ordered Ferguson to pursue the beaten enemy, when Burrard assumed the chief command, and, believing the French had a reserve as yet untouched, forbade Ferguson to advance. The very next day Sir Hew Dalrymple assumed the chief command, and made the Convention of Cintra, with the full concurrence of Burrard, while Wellesley was ordered to do so due to his opposition to the convention. All three generals were recalled, and a court of inquiry was appointed to examine their conduct. Burrard succinctly declared the reasons for his course of action on 21 August. While the inquiry officially absolved all three, unofficially the blame fell on Burrard and Dalrymple. Wellesley soon returned to active duty in Portugal, while Burrard and Dalrymple were pushed into a series of obscure administrative posts and never again held an active command. [1]
Burrard never applied for another command, but in 1810 as senior lieutenant-colonel he assumed the command of the Brigade of Guards in London. [1] He died at Calshot Castle near Fawley, Hampshire, on 17 October 1813. He was buried in Lymington churchyard. [2] He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Charles (1793–1870), an officer who rose to the rank of admiral in the Royal Navy and on whose death in 1870 the baronetcy became extinct. [1]
On 20 February 1789 he married Hannah, the daughter of Harry Darby, a London merchant; they had five sons and two daughters. [2] All the sons served in the army or the navy. Two sons were killed in 1809 one of whom was acting as aide-de-camp to Sir John Moore at the battle of Corunna. He lost a third at the siege of San Sebastian which is said to have caused him to die of a broken heart. His wife survived him. [1] [2]
The Convention of Cintra was an agreement signed on 30 August 1808, during the Peninsular War. By the agreement, the defeated French were allowed to evacuate their troops from Portugal without further conflict. The Convention was signed at the Palace of Queluz, in Queluz, Cintra, Estremadura.
Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, was a British Army general, also known as Moore of Corunna. He is best known for his military training reforms and for his death at the Battle of Corunna, in which he repulsed a French army under Marshal Soult during the Peninsular War. After the war General Sarrazin wrote a French history of the battle, which nonetheless may have been written in light of subsequent events, stating that "Whatever Buonaparte may assert, Soult was most certainly repulsed at Corunna; and the English gained a defensive victory, though dearly purchased with the loss of their brave general Moore, who was alike distinguished for his private virtues, and his military talents."
In the Battle of Roliça an Anglo-Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated an outnumbered Imperial French division under General of Division Henri François Delaborde, near the village of Roliça in Portugal. The French retired in good order. Formerly spelled Roleia in English, it was the first battle fought by the British army during the Peninsular War.
Field Marshal John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, was a British Army officer and colonial governor. After taking part as a junior officer in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedition to Egypt and then the War of the Third Coalition, he served as military secretary to Sir John Moore at the Battle of Corunna. He then commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 66th Regiment of Foot and, later, the 52nd Regiment of Foot at many of the battles of the Peninsular War. At the Battle of Waterloo, Colborne on his own initiative brought the 52nd Regiment of Foot forward, took up a flanking position in relation to the French Imperial Guard and then, after firing repeated volleys into their flank, charged at the Guard so driving them back in disorder.
Lieutenant General Richard Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian, known as Sir Hussey Vivian from 1815 to 1828 and Sir Hussey Vivian, Bt, from 1828 to 1841, was a British cavalry leader from the Vivian family.
Field Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, was a British Army officer. After seeing active service during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, he fought as a troop commander in many of the battles of the Peninsular War and the Hundred Days. He went on to become the Artillery Commander, Northern District with delegated command over all the forces of the four northern counties before being promoted to Deputy Adjutant-General, Royal Artillery. Ross was the last person to hold the title of Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, assuming responsibility for the artillery component sent to take part in the Crimean War under Lord Raglan. After the war he served as Master Gunner, St James's Park, a senior ceremonial post in the Royal Artillery.
There have been two baronetcies created for members of the Burrard family, one in the Baronetage of Great Britain and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Both creations are extinct.
Harry Burrard may refer to:
Sir Harry Burrard, 1st Baronet was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 37 years from 1741 to 1778.
General Sir Hew Whitefoord Dalrymple, 1st Baronet was a Scottish general in the British Army and Governor of Gibraltar.
General Sir Loftus William Otway, CB was an experienced and professional cavalry commander of British forces during the Peninsula War who saw extensive service under Sir John Moore in the Corunna Campaign and Wellington in the remainder of the campaign. He also worked training Portuguese troops and spent time serving in Ireland during the 1798 rebellion and Canada. Otway retired after the Peninsula War and was honoured several times for his war service by both the British and Spanish royal families.
General Sir Henry Fane commanded brigades under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington during several battles during the Peninsular War, and served both as a member of Parliament and Commander-in-Chief of India.
General Sir John "Black Jack" Slade, 1st Baronet, served as a general officer in the British Army during the Peninsular War. Slade was praised in official reports, including by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who also voiced some criticisms of him privately. Slade received an Army Gold Medal, and was honoured three times with the thanks of Parliament. Slade's descendants include two admirals, namely son Sir Adolphus Slade and grandson Sir Edmond Slade. Despite achieving high rank during and after active soldiering, Slade was criticised as a general of cavalry by some contemporaries and historians.
Sir John Hamilton-Dalrymple, 5th Baronet was a Scottish politician and the MP for Haddington Burghs between 1805 and 1806. He was the second son of Sir Hew Dalrymple, 3rd Baronet, and the younger brother of Sir Hew Dalrymple-Hamilton, 4th Baronet.
Sir Adolphus John Dalrymple, 2nd Baronet of High Mark was a British army officer and politician.
Walhampton is a hamlet in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It is in the civil parish of Boldre. It is approximately half a mile east of Lymington, on the east bank of the Lymington River. The Solent Way, a long-distance footpath, passes close to the hamlet.
Robert Anstruther, was a Scottish general who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington,, was one of the leading British military and political figures of the 19th century. Often referred to solely as "The Duke of Wellington", he led a successful military career in the Indian subcontinent during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798–99) and the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805), and in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
Sir Ronald Craufurd Ferguson, was a Scottish officer in the British Army and a Member of Parliament for the constituencies of Dysart Burghs and for Nottingham.
The Governor of Calshot Castle was a military officer who commanded the fortifications at Calshot Castle, a Device Fort of Henry VIII guarding Southampton Water. It was in military use until 1956.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Stephens, Henry Morse (1886). "Burrard, Harry". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 440. Endnotes 