List of British general officers killed in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

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This is a list of general officers of the British Armed Forces who were killed or died while on active service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. This comprises the period of 1793–1815, and includes British general officers who were serving in the British Army or attached to the allied Portuguese Army. Officers of the rank of colonel are included if they were acting in the position of a general officer, that being a brigade or larger, at the time of their death, despite them not themselves being general officers. Officers are also included if they had recently left a command at the time of their death, and their active service was the cause of it.

Background

The death and injury rate of senior officers fighting in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was unusually high. General officers of the period regularly demonstrated their courage and served to the forefront in battles, placing themselves in positions of high jeopardy. Sanitary and living conditions on military campaigns in the period were also poor, leading to a number of general officers succumbing to illness and disease while on service.^[1]

The historian Rory Muir contrasts this style of service for British general officers with that of their successors fighting in the First World War, saying that the added risks officers of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars put themselves in meant that their troops "never felt the alienation from their senior officers which developed during the First World War".^[2] The highest rate of death among general officers occurred during the Peninsular War, where fifteen per cent who served were killed, having a sixty per cent higher chance of dying than their junior officers.^[1]

Generals

Image	Name	Branch	Date of death	Cause of death	Location	Command	References
	William Grinfield	British Army	19 October 1803	Yellow fever	Barbados, West Indies	Windward and Leedward Islands	[3][4][5]

Lieutenant-Generals

Image	Name	Branch	Date of death	Cause of death	Location	Command	References
	Sir John Vaughan	British Army	30 June 1795	Bowel complaint, possibly poison	Martinique, West Indies	Windward Islands	[6]
	Sir Ralph Abercromby	British Army	28 March 1801	Hostile fire (small arms)[Note 1]	Alexandria, Egypt	Egypt Army	[8][7]
	Sir William Myers	British Army	29 July 1805	Illness	Barbados, West Indies	Windward and Leeward Islands	[9]
	Sir John Moore	British Army	16 January 1809	Hostile fire (cannonball)	Coruña, Spain	Coruña Army	[10][11][12]
	Alexander Mackenzie Fraser	British Army	13 September 1809	Illness	Britain (illness caught on active service)	4th Division, Walcheren campaign	[8][13]
	Sir Thomas Picton	British Army	18 June 1815	Hostile fire (small arms)	Waterloo, Belgium	5th Division	[10][14][15]

Major-Generals

Image	Name	Branch	Date of death	Cause of death	Location	Command	References
	John Mansel	British Army	26 April 1794	Hostile fire (small arms)	Beaumont, France	Brigade of Dragoons, Flanders campaign	[16][17]
	Thomas Dundas	British Army	3 June 1794	Yellow fever	Basseterre, Guadeloupe	Governor of Guadeloupe, West Indies campaign	[18]
	William Clephane	British Army	4 November 1803	Illness	Grenada, West Indies	Lieutenant-Governor of Grenada	[19]
	Patrick Wauchope	British Army	31 March 1807	Hostile fire (small arms)	Rosetta, Egypt	Second-in-command, Alexandria expedition	[10][20][21]
	John Randoll Mackenzie	British Army	28 July 1809	Hostile fire (small arms)	Talavera, Spain	3rd Division	[10][22][23]
	Coote Manningham	British Army	26 August 1809	Fatigue	Britain (fatigue caused on active service)	3rd Brigade, 1st Division, Coruña campaign	[8][11]
	Richard Stewart	British Army	19 October 1810	Fell off balcony while delirious with eye infection	Lisbon, Portugal	Brigade, 2nd Division	[8][24]
	Daniel Hoghton	British Army	16 May 1811	Hostile fire (small arms)	Albuera, Spain	Brigade, 2nd Division (had replaced Stewart)	[10][25][26]
	Henry MacKinnon	British Army	19 January 1812	Hostile fire (magazine explosion)	Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain	Brigade, 3rd Division	[10][27]
	Robert Craufurd	British Army	24 January 1812	Hostile fire (small arms)	Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain	Light Division	[10][28]
	Barnard Foord Bowes	British Army	23 June 1812	Hostile fire (small arms)	Salamanca, Spain	Brigade, 6th Division	[10][29]
	John Le Marchant	British Army	22 July 1812	Hostile fire (small arms)	Salamanca, Spain	Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division	[10][30]
	William Wheatley	British Army	1 September 1812	Typhus	San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain	Brigade, 1st Division	[31][32]
	Richard Hulse	British Army	7 September 1812	Typhus	Arévalo, Spain	5th Division	[31][33]
	Andrew Ross	British Army	26 September 1812	Fever	Cartagena, Spain	Cartagena garrison	[31][34][35]
	Sir Isaac Brock	British Army	13 October 1812	Hostile fire (small arms)	Queenston, Upper Canada	Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada	[10][36][37]
	Sir William Erskine	British Army	13 February 1813	Suicide by jumping out of a window	Lisbon, Portugal	2nd Cavalry Division	[31][38]
	William Frederick Spry	Portuguese Army	16 January 1814	Illness[Note 2]	Southampton, Britain (illness caught on active service)	3rd Portuguese Brigade, 5th Division	[31][40][41][42]
	Eberhardt Otto George von Bock	British Army	21 January 1814	Drowned	At sea, off Pleubian, France	Heavy Dragoon Brigade, King's German Legion	[31][43]
	John Byne Skerrett	British Army	10 March 1814	Hostile fire (small arms)	Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands	Brigade, Bergen op Zoom	[10][44][45]
	Andrew Hay	British Army	14 April 1814	Hostile fire	Bayonne, France	Brigade, 1st Division	[10][46]
	Robert Ross	British Army	12 September 1814	Hostile fire (small arms)	North Point, United States	Brigade, United States	[10][47]
	Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie	British Army	31 October 1814	Hostile fire (small arms)	Kalunga, India	Meerut Division, Bengal Army	[10][48]
	Sir Samuel Gibbs	British Army	8 January 1815	Hostile fire	New Orleans, United States	Second-in-command, New Orleans expedition	[10][49][50]
	Sir Edward Pakenham	British Army	8 January 1815	Hostile fire (small arms)	New Orleans, United States	New Orleans expedition	[10][51]
	Sir William Ponsonby	British Army	18 June 1815	Hostile fire (small arms)[Note 3]	Waterloo, Belgium	2nd Cavalry Brigade, Cavalry Corps	[10][53]

Brigadier-Generals

Image	Name	Branch	Date of death	Cause of death	Location	Command	References
	Richard Symes	British Army	19 July 1794	Hostile fire (small arms)[Note 4]	Saint Kitts, West Indies	Brigade, Invasion of Guadeloupe, West Indies campaign	[55]
	Stephens Howe	British Army	20 July 1796	Yellow fever	Port Royal, Jamaica		[56]
	John Henry Yorke	British Army	1 November 1805	Drowned	At sea, off Brazil	Royal Artillery, Cape of Good Hope expedition	[8][57]
	Robert Anstruther	British Army	14 January 1809	Pneumonia	Coruña, Spain	1st Brigade, Reserve Division, Coruña campaign	[8][58]
	Ernst Eberhard Cuno Langwerth von Simmern [de]	British Army	28 July 1809	Hostile fire (grapeshot)	Talavera, Spain	3rd Brigade, 1st Division	[10][59][60]
	James Catlin Craufurd	British Army	25 September 1810	Malaria	Abrantes, Portugal	Brigade, 2nd Division	[8][61]
	William Campbell	Portuguese Army	2 January 1811	Illness	Trocifal, Lines of Torres Vedras, Portugal	5th Portuguese Brigade	[31][62]
	Charles Millar	Portuguese Army	February 1811	Illness	Portugal	Portuguese Militia	[31]
	George Drummond	British Army	8 September 1811	Trench mouth	Fuenteguinaldo, Spain	2nd Brigade, Light Division	[8][63]
	Francis Colman	Portuguese Army[Note 5]	12 December 1811	Fever	Lisbon, Portugal	6th Portuguese Brigade, 7th Division	[31][65][66][67][68]
	Richard Collins	Portuguese Army	17 February 1813	Exhaustion	Gouveia, Portugal	6th Portuguese Brigade, 7th Division	[31][69][70]
	William Harvey	Portuguese Army	10 June 1813	Illness[Note 6]	At sea, en route to Britain	9th Portuguese Brigade, 4th Division	[31][72][71][73]
	Arthur Gore	British Army	8/9 March 1814	Hostile fire	Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands	Brigade, Bergen op Zoom	[10][45]

Colonels

Image	Name	Branch	Date of death	Cause of death	Location	Command	References
	James Wynch	British Army	6 January 1811	Dysentery	Lisbon, Portugal	2nd Brigade, Light Division	[8][74][75]
	George Wilson	British Army	5 January 1813	Fever	Moraleja, Spain	Brigade, 2nd Division	[31][76]
	Henry Cadogan	British Army	21 June 1813	Hostile fire	Vitoria, Spain	1st Brigade, 2nd Division	[77]
	Georg Carl August du Plat [de]	British Army	21 June 1815	Hostile fire	Waterloo, Belgium	1st Brigade, King's German Legion, 2nd Division	[10][78]

Notes and citations

Notes

Citations

References

This page was last edited on 18 April 2024, at 11:22