Part 25

He was second in command at the siege and capture of Ciudad Rodrigo; and commanded the army employed in the siege of St. Sebastian, and also the left wing at the passage of the Bidassoa; but soon after, in consequence of ill health, he was obliged to resign his command to Sir John Hope. In 1814 he was appointed to the command of the forces employed in Holland, and on the 3rd of May in the same year he again received the thanks of Parliament, and was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Lynedoch, of Balgowan, in the county of Perth.

As years advanced, and the infirmities of age began to accumulate, Lord Lynedoch found the climate of Italy better calculated to sustain his declining energies than the atmosphere and temperature of his own country; he, therefore, spent much time on the continent; but, on a recent occasion, so anxious was he to manifest his sense of loyalty and his personal attachment to the Queen, that when Her Majesty visited Scotland, he came home from Switzerland for the express purpose of paying his duty to Her Majesty in the metropolis of his native land.

Lord Lynedoch's first commission in the army, that of Lieut.-Colonel, was dated 10th February, 1794; and he was promoted Colonel, by brevet, on the 22nd July, 1795. His commissions in the grade of General Officer were,--Major-General, 25th September, 1803; Lieut.-General, 25th July, 1810; and General, 19th July, 1821. He was successively Colonel of the 90th Regiment, at the head of which he continued nearly twenty years; of the 58th; and of the 14th Regiment, from which he was removed to the ROYAL REGIMENT on 12th December, 1834, when the Duke of Gordon was appointed to the Colonelcy of the Scots Fusilier Guards. He was also Governor of Dumbarton Castle in North Britain. He wore a Cross for his services at Barrosa (as Commander of the Forces), at Ciudad Rodrigo, Vittoria, and St. Sebastian (where he commanded a division), and he was a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, and of the foreign Order of St. Michael and St. George.

To advert at greater length to Lord Lynedoch's services as a soldier would be superfluous. Conspicuous, in action for his talents, in council for his sagacity, and in private life for unassuming worth and the most estimable qualities, his character displayed a rare union of skill, chivalry, and amiability, and his widely-spread fame, his long and intimate connexion with the army, which have been the admiration of the present generation, will continue to hold a prominent place in British history. Though his titles have become extinct, he has left behind him a name which will be held in honoured remembrance while loyalty is considered a virtue, and military renown a passport to fame.

SIR GEORGE MURRAY, G.C.B.,

_Appointed 29th December, 1843_.

SIR GEORGE MURRAY was a native of Scotland, and entered the army at the age of 17, as an Ensign in the 71st Regiment, on the 12th of March, 1789. He was shortly afterwards removed to the 34th Regiment, and to the 3rd Foot Guards in July, 1790, from which time, to the close of the war in 1815, he was almost constantly employed in the active military service of his country, in the Netherlands, in the West Indies, in Egypt, in the north of Europe, and in the peninsula of Spain and Portugal.

He was first under fire with the 3rd Guards in Flanders, and

## participated in the campaigns of 1793 and the two following years,

being present at the affair at St. Amand, sieges of Tamars and Valenciennes, attack of Lincelles, investment of Dunkirk, &c.; and he accompanied the army on its retreat through Holland and Germany.

In 1795 he served as aide-de-camp to Major-General A. Campbell on the expedition to Quiberon Bay; and in the autumn he proceeded to the West Indies with the force under Sir Ralph Abercromby. Having returned home in ill health, he continued on the Staff of Major-General Campbell, first in North Britain, and then in Ireland.

In the year 1799 Lieut.-Colonel Murray was employed in the Quarter-Master General's department of the army under the Duke of York in Holland; and he was wounded in the action on the Helder. He subsequently embarked from Cork for Gibraltar with part of the force destined to be employed under Sir Ralph Abercromby in the Mediterranean; and, being again placed in the Quarter-Master General's department, he was ordered to precede the army to Egypt, for the purpose of making arrangements for the debarkation of the troops. He was present in the action on the landing of the force, in the affairs of the 13th and 21st March, 1801, at the siege of Rosetta, and the investments of Cairo and Alexandria.

From Egypt Lieut.-Colonel Murray proceeded to the West Indies, where he served for twelve months in the situation of Adjutant General.

Returning home, he was, in the early part of 1803, appointed one of the Assistant Quarter-Masters General at head-quarters; in November, 1804, he was appointed Deputy Quarter-Master General to the army in Ireland.

While holding that commission he was detached, as Quarter-Master General, with the expedition to Stralsund, and likewise with the force employed under Lieut.-General the Earl Cathcart at Copenhagen. He resumed his duties in Ireland; and in 1808 was again detached, as Quarter-Master General, with the force sent to the Baltic under Lieut.-General Sir John Moore; and when these troops proceeded to Portugal, Lieut.-Colonel Murray accompanied that force, and was engaged at the battle of Vimiera, at Lugo, and Villa Franca, as well as at Corunna, and his services as a staff officer were particularly alluded to and commended in Lieut.-General Hope's despatch containing the account of that victory.

In the year 1809 Colonel Murray was appointed Quarter-Master General to the army under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, but returned home in 1811, and in May of the following year was appointed Quarter-Master General in Ireland, where he remained until September, 1813, when he again proceeded to the Peninsula, and served there at the head of the Quarter-Master General's department until the close of the war,

## participating in all the important operations of that eventful period,

and evincing all the talents which are indispensable in a staff officer with an army employed in such arduous and trying circumstances: he received a Cross and five Clasps for his services in the field.

In June, 1814, Major-General Sir George Murray was appointed Adjutant-General to the army in Ireland, a situation which he vacated in December following for the purpose of undertaking the governorship of the Canadas; but on the resumption of hostilities in the spring of 1815, he quitted America for the purpose of joining his former companions in arms. He did not, however, succeed in reaching the army until the allies had entered Paris; but he continued to serve on the Continent, with the local rank of Lieut.-General, until the return of the Army of Occupation to England, in 1818.

In August, 1819, Lieut.-General Sir George Murray was appointed Governor of the Royal Military College; in March, 1824, he was nominated Lieut.-General of the Ordnance, and in March, 1825, he proceeded to Dublin as Lieut.-General, commanding the forces in Ireland, where he remained till the year 1828, and in September, 1829, he received the appointment of Governor of Fort George in North Britain.

Sir George Murray's career was not, however, limited to his military employments. Having sat in two successive Parliaments as member for his native county of Perth, he was offered the seals of office as Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, which he accepted, and held from 1828 to 1830. His merits and talents, whether in a military or political point of view, were thus kept in view by the Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister. In 1834 and 1835 he filled the situation of Master-General of the Ordnance, and in 1841 that appointment was again conferred upon him, and he continued to hold it till within a short period of his decease, which occurred on the 28th July, 1846.

Sir George Murray was successively Colonel commandant of a battalion of the 60th Regiment, Colonel of the 72nd Regiment, and of the 42nd Royal Highlanders, which he held upwards of twenty years, when he was removed to the Colonelcy of the FIRST, OR ROYAL REGIMENT, in December, 1843.

He was a Knight of the Crescent; and, in addition to the Orders of Leopold of Belgium, St. Alexander Newski of Russia, the Red Eagle of Prussia, the Tower and Sword of Prussia, Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria, and St. Henry of Saxony, Sir George Murray was decorated with the Crosses of the First Class of the Order of the Bath, and of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order.

SIR JAMES KEMPT, G.C.B. and G.C.H.,

_Appointed 7th August, 1846_.

FOOTNOTES:

[144] Historians have fallen into several errors respecting this distinguished officer. Père Daniel states that he was esteemed by Henry IV. of France, whereas Henry IV. died in 1610, and young Hepburn did not leave school until 1614; Hamilton states that he was knighted on his return from the continent by James VI.; but this monarch died in 1625, and Colonel Hepburn did not return until 1632; and Harte, in his life of Gustavus Adolphus, states that Colonel Hepburn was killed in a duel in France; whereas there is abundant proof that he was killed at the siege of Saverne.

[145] Colonel Monro, afterwards Lord Monro, speaks of Hepburn in the highest terms of praise; they were first schoolfellows at college--then companions in their travels--and afterwards associates in war, partaking of the same toils, dangers, and triumphs.--See Monro's Expedition part ii. p. 75.

[146] Abrégé de la Vie de Frederic Duc de Schomberg, par M. de Luzaney.

[147] Captain in the ROYAL REGIMENT in 1684. Vide Nathan Brooke's Army List, dated 1st October, 1684; also in 1687. Vide Bibl. Harl. 4847.

[148] Vide Historical Record of the Royal Regiment, page 129.

[149] David Hume, the historian, was secretary to General St. Clair during the expedition to the coast of France, and the embassy to Vienna and Turin.

[150] When Prince Edward was ordered to storm Morne Tartisson and Fort Royal, on the 17th of March, 1794, he placed himself at the head of his brigade of grenadiers, and addressed them as follows:--"_Grenadiers! This is St. Patrick's day; the English will do their duty in compliment to the Irish, and the Irish in compliment to the Saint!_--FORWARD, GRENADIERS!"

[151] In commemoration of the important captures in the West Indies, at the period above stated, an anniversary dinner takes place at the United Service Club on the 17th of March (St. Patrick's day), as it was on that saint's day his late Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, at the head of his Grenadier brigade, carried Fort Royal by escalade, when both his aides-de-camp, General Sir Frederick Wetherall, and the late Major-General Vesey, were severely wounded close to His Royal Highness. The following officers attended on the 17th March, 1838:--The Marquis of Thomond, General Viscount Lorton, Admiral Lord Colville, General Sir Lowry Cole, G.C.B., General Lord Howden, G.C.B., General Sir Fitzroy Maclean, Bart., Lieutenant-General Sir H. S. Keating, K.C.B., Sir William Pym, K.C.H., and Major-General Reeves, C.B. All these officers, with the exception of the Admiral, served in the Grenadier brigade, under the orders of their illustrious commander, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.

Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.

Enclosed italics markup in _underscores_.