Part 8

Captain Doyle was promoted on the 21st of March 1782 to the rank of Major in the “Volunteers of Ireland,” which corps at this period was numbered the One hundred and fifth regiment. Major Doyle formed a corps of light cavalry from amongst the backwoodsmen, with which he rendered essential service to the army, and was again severely wounded. In the expedition against General Marion he charged the State regiment of Carolina dragoons with his advanced corps of seventy horse, the killed, wounded, and prisoners of the enemy exceeding his whole force. The American War shortly afterwards terminated, and the One hundred and fifth regiment was ordered to Ireland, when Major Doyle was entrusted with public despatches to the ministers.

Peace having now taken place, Major Doyle entered upon a new scene of action, and was returned member for Mullingar in the Irish parliament of 1782, when his exertions were devoted to the improvement of the establishment in Ireland, similar to Chelsea Hospital, for the relief of disabled and worn-out soldiers. The One hundred and fifth regiment was disbanded in 1784, and Major Doyle remained on half-pay from the 25th of June of that year until the war of the French Revolution in 1793, when he offered to raise a regiment of his countrymen for the service of Government; and his Royal Patron honored the corps with the appellation of “The Prince of Wales’s Irish Regiment,” and it was numbered the EIGHTY-SEVENTH, of which Major Doyle was appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant on the 18th of September 1793, and with which he proceeded in the following year to the Continent, with the force commanded by Major-General the Earl of Moira, under whom (as Lord Rawdon) he had served in America.

Lieut.-Colonel Doyle served during the campaign of 1794 under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, and repulsed an attack of the enemy at Alost, on the 15th of July of that year, after having been twice severely wounded, being the first individual of the regiment who was wounded. His conduct was honorably noticed in His Royal Highness’s despatch. Lieut.-Colonel Doyle next proceeded to Antwerp, and ultimately to England for the recovery of his wounds, when he was afterwards appointed Secretary-at-War in Ireland.

In consequence of the reduction of the Prince of Wales’s household, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle lost the appointment of Secretary to His Royal Highness; but, notwithstanding this decrease of income, he closed his political career by a mark of generosity worthy of being recorded. His regiment being still prisoners in France, under the circumstances narrated at page 6., he collected their wives and families, and distributed five hundred pounds amongst them.

On the 3rd of May 1796, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle was promoted to be Colonel of the EIGHTY-SEVENTH regiment, and proceeded in the command of a secret expedition to Holland, with the rank of Brigadier-General; but contrary winds, violent gales, and unavoidable delays, rendered the expedition fruitless, its object being to surprise and destroy the Dutch fleet in the Helder.

In 1797 Colonel Doyle was appointed a Brigadier-General upon the staff, and was ordered to Gibraltar, where he remained until the expedition was determined on for Malta and Egypt, when, having volunteered his services, he was placed on the staff under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, whom he accompanied to Minorca, Malta, and Cadiz, and was selected as one of his brigadier-generals upon the expedition to Egypt, when he shared in the actions, near Alexandria, of the 8th, 13th, and 21st of March 1801, after which he was selected by Lieut.-General Hutchinson, who succeeded to the command on the death of General Sir Ralph Abercromby, to accompany him in the expedition against Grand Cairo. He was also at the affair of Rhamanie on the 9th of May, subsequently to which the army halted at the village of Algam. On the morning of the 17th of May, when the army was encamped upon the borders of the Lybian Desert, an Arab was conducted to Brigadier-General Doyle’s tent, who brought intelligence that a body of French troops, which he computed at two thousand men, was within a few miles of the camp, with a large convoy of camels. Brigadier-General Doyle immediately requested permission to pursue the enemy with such of the cavalry as might be in the camp; and Lieut.-General Hutchinson acceding to his request, he repaired thither, where he ascertained that the Turkish cavalry had been detached a day or two before, and that a squadron of the Twelfth light dragoons had, prior to his arrival, been sent to water at some distance. As success depended on promptness and expedition, the Brigadier immediately struck into the desert in search of the enemy, without waiting for the absent squadron, which he left to an officer to bring on. After a long pursuit, the cavalry came up with the French troops, when they formed a hollow square, and commenced an irregular fire of musketry. The French commander, after some parley, was obliged to surrender on the terms offered; twenty-eight officers, five hundred and sixty-nine rank and file, two hundred horses, four hundred and sixty camels, one four-pounder, besides a stand of colours, were taken on this occasion by the detachment under Brigadier-General Doyle, which consisted of two hundred and fifty dragoons.

After the capitulation of Grand Cairo in June 1801, Lieut.-General Hutchinson (afterwards the Earl of Donoughmore) in his public despatches, expressed his obligations to Major-General Cradock and Brigadier-General Doyle, and recommended them as “officers highly deserving His Majesty’s favour.” Upon the surrender of Cairo, the country fever seized many of the troops, and Brigadier-General Doyle, with several others, was sent ill to Rosetta, where, before his recovery, he heard a rumour of an intended attack upon the French at Alexandria. Urged by this intelligence, he left his sick bed, mounted his horse, and rode forty miles through the desert, under the intense heat of an Egyptian sun, and arrived the night before the attack. In that successful enterprise he commanded, and had the good fortune to defeat the attempts subsequently made by General Menou upon a part of his position. Lieut.-General Hutchinson, on the following day, thanked him publicly in the field in the most animated manner; but in writing his official despatch, not only omitted to forward the Brigadier-General’s report of the

## action of the Green Hills, near Alexandria, on the 17th of August

1801, but unfortunately stated his brigade to have been commanded by another. This omission was afterwards fully rectified by the Lieut.-General, and the matter was adverted to by Lord Hobart in the House of Commons, who particularly alluded to the conduct of Brigadier-General Doyle, when moving the thanks of Parliament to the army and navy employed in Egypt.

While at Naples, after the close of the Egyptian campaign, whither Brigadier-General Doyle had proceeded for the recovery of his health, he was requested by the British ambassador to become the bearer of important despatches to the Government. This proved a service of great danger, as the country through which he passed was infested with banditti, who robbed and assassinated all who fell into their hands. His conduct on this occasion was gratefully acknowledged by His Majesty’s ministers. Upon his arrival in England, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 29th of April 1802, and was placed on the staff at Guernsey, and was soon afterwards appointed Lieut.-Governor of that island, where his services during the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon were highly appreciated. Shortly afterwards the island of Alderney was added to his command. In October 1805, he was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom, and received His Majesty’s royal license to wear the Order of the Crescent conferred by the Grand Seignior, and to bear supporters to his arms, with an additional crest. On the 25th of April 1808, he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General.

Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle was selected to organise and command the Portuguese army, but the despatch ordering him to report himself for that purpose to the Secretary of State, was prevented from reaching him by a gale of wind that lasted for twenty-eight days, and another officer was consequently sent upon that service, which did not admit of delay. In 1812 he was nominated a Knight of the Bath, and in 1815 became a Knight Grand Cross of that Order.

Whilst the Sovereign and the Government were thus marking their approbation of the services of Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, the inhabitants of Guernsey, whose government he had so long administered, were not slow in manifesting their gratitude for the benefits they derived from his fostering care. The States of the Island voted him an address of thanks under their great seal, and presented him with a splendid piece of plate, in the form of a vase, with suitable inscriptions; their example was followed by the militia and other public bodies with similar valuable and elegant testimonials; and when he was recalled in consequence of the reduction of the staff on the peace of 1815, they unanimously petitioned the Prince Regent that they might retain their Lieutenant-Governor, and voted the erection of a pillar, at the public expense, as a memorial of their gratitude for the services rendered by him to the island and its inhabitants.

Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, Bart., was appointed Governor of Charlemont on the 21st of September 1818, and on the 12th of August of the following year he was advanced to the rank of General. His decease occurred in London, on the 8th of August 1834, after a lengthened service of sixty-three years.

SIR THOMAS REYNELL, BART., K.C.B.

_Appointed 15th August 1834._

This distinguished officer commenced his military career as an Ensign in the Thirty-eighth regiment, his commission being dated the 30th of September 1793. He joined the regiment in January 1794, at Belfast, and in April proceeded with it to Flanders, where it formed part of the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of York. On arrival at the seat of war, the Thirty-eighth regiment was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count Clèrfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together with the Eighth light dragoons and Twelfth foot. Ensign Reynell was present in the action on the heights of Lincelles on the 18th of May, and at the battle of Hoglade on the 13th of June 1794. He afterwards served with the army under the Duke of York, and was in Nimeguen when that town was besieged. On the 3rd of December following, when cantoned between the rivers Rhine and the Waal, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Thirty-eighth regiment. Lieutenant Reynell served during the winter campaign of 1795, and the retreat through Westphalia to the Weser, and there embarked for England. He accompanied the Thirty-eighth regiment to the West Indies in May 1796, and was present at the capture of the island of Trinidad in the early part of 1797. On the 22nd of July 1797 he was promoted to a company in the Second West India regiment, and joined that corps at Grenada.

Captain Reynell quitted Grenada early in 1798, in consequence of being appointed Assistant Adjutant-General at St. Domingo, where he remained until that island was evacuated by the British in September, when he returned to England. In the beginning of 1799 he revisited St. Domingo, as one of the suite of Brigadier-General the Honorable Thomas Maitland, then employed in framing a commercial treaty with the negro chief Toussaint L’Ouverture, who had risen to the supreme authority at St. Domingo. When it was concluded, Captain Reynell returned to England in July of the same year.

On the 8th of August 1799 Captain Reynell was transferred to a company in the Fortieth regiment, with the first battalion of which he embarked for the Helder in that month, and joined the army, which was at first commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and afterwards by the Duke of York. Captain Reynell was present in the action of the 10th of September; also in the battle of the 19th of September, when he was the only captain of the first battalion of the Fortieth regiment that was not killed or wounded; he was also present in the subsequent battles of the 2nd and 6th of October. Captain Reynell, upon the British army being withdrawn from Holland, re-embarked with the first battalion of the Fortieth regiment, and arrived in England in November 1799.

In April 1800 Captain Reynell embarked with his regiment for the Mediterranean, and went in the first instance to Minorca, afterwards to Leghorn; returned to Minorca, and proceeded with a large force under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, for the attack of Cadiz. Signals for disembarking were made; but although the boats had actually put off from the ships, a recall was ordered, in consequence of the plague raging at Cadiz. After this, he proceeded up the Mediterranean again, and in November landed at Malta. The flank companies of the Fortieth regiment having been allowed to volunteer their services in the expedition to Egypt, Captain Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light company (one of the four flank companies detached under Colonel Brent Spencer), and was present in the action at the landing on the 8th of March 1801. On this occasion the flank companies of the Fortieth were on the right of the line, and were particularly noticed for the gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills immediately where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the battle of the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of the army in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain Reynell proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish battalions to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was present in the action at Rhamanie, on the 9th of May, and followed the French to Grand Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated, and returned as escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and after they had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir Eyre Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria on the 2nd of September 1801 terminated the campaign, for his services in which he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on the several officers employed.

Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed Aide-de-camp to Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as Aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed to the command of the troops at Madras; and while on the passage, namely, the 3rd of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of Major in the Fortieth regiment.

On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel upon being appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General to the King’s troops in the East Indies. In July following he was appointed Aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, Governor-General of India, and accompanied his Lordship from Madras to Bengal, with whom he remained until his Lordship’s decease at Ghazepore in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to Madras immediately afterwards, and was appointed Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the Commander-in-Chief at that presidency. He officiated during several months of the year 1806 as Deputy Adjutant-General in India, in which country he remained until October 1807, when he returned with Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England in April 1808.

Lieut.-Colonel Reynell resigned the appointment of Deputy Quartermaster-General in India, and was brought on full pay as Major of the Ninety-sixth regiment on the 5th of May 1808, and on the 22nd of September following was appointed Major in the Seventy-first regiment.

In October 1808, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, who had been appointed to command the forces in Portugal, and landed in November at Lisbon. He remained in Portugal until April 1809, when Sir John Cradock was superseded in the command of the forces in Portugal by Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell afterwards accompanied Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Cadiz, Seville, and Gibraltar, of which latter place Sir John Cradock was appointed Governor, and Lieut.-Colonel Reynell remained there as Military Secretary until September, when he returned to England.

Lieut.-Colonel Reynell joined the Seventy-first regiment at Brabourne-Lees Barracks in December 1809, immediately after its return from Walcheren. In September 1810 he embarked at Deal with six companies of the Seventy-first regiment for Portugal, landed at Lisbon towards the end of that month, marched soon after to Mafra, and thence to Sobral, where the six companies joined the army under Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington. In October Lieut.-Colonel Reynell had the honor of being particularly mentioned by Viscount Wellington in his despatch, containing an account of the repulse of the attack of the French at Sobral on the 14th of that month. The British army shortly afterwards retired to the lines of Torres Vedras, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to the fourth division under Major-General the Honorable George Lowry Cole.

Early in March 1811, the army of Marshal Massena broke up from its entrenched position at Santarem, and retreated to the northward. Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell entered Santarem with the fourth division the day after Marshal Massena had left it, and continued in the pursuit of the French army to the Mondego. In the affair of Redinha he had a horse killed under him. From Espinhal the fourth division was ordered to retrograde, and recross the Tagus, for the purpose of reinforcing Marshal Sir William Carr Beresford. In 1811 he joined the Marshal at Portalegre, and being the senior British assistant adjutant-general, was directed to join Marshal Beresford’s head-quarters, and proceeded with him to Campo Mayor, from which the enemy retired; was also present at the capture of Olivença, and subsequently accompanied the Marshal to Zafra, between which place and Llerena a smart skirmish occurred with the enemy’s hussars. In May 1811, Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to England from Lisbon with despatches from Viscount Wellington.

In July 1811, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed Governor and Commander of the forces at the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived by the end of September. On the 4th of June 1813, he received the brevet rank of Colonel; and on the 5th of August 1813, he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel of the Seventy-first regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Henry Cadogan, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Vittoria. In February following, being desirous of joining the corps, Colonel Reynell resigned his staff situation at the Cape, and proceeded to England, where he arrived in May 1814. In July of that year he was appointed Adjutant-General to the force then preparing for service in America under Lieut.-General Lord Hill; but, other operations being then in view, that appointment was cancelled.

Colonel Reynell took the command of the first battalion of the Seventy-first regiment at Limerick in December 1814, and embarked with it from Cork in January of the following year, as part of an expedition for North America; but peace having been concluded with the United States, and contrary winds having prevented the sailing of the vessels, the destination of the battalion was changed. In March Colonel Reynell received orders to proceed with his battalion to the Downs, where, in the middle of April, it was trans-shipped into small vessels, and sent immediately to Ostend, to join the army forming in Flanders, in consequence of Napoleon Bonaparte having returned from Elba to France.

In the memorable battle of Waterloo, fought on the 18th of June 1815, Colonel Reynell commanded the first battalion of the Seventy-first regiment, and was wounded in the foot on that occasion. He afterwards succeeded to the command of Major-General Adam’s brigade, consisting of the first battalions of the Fifty-second and Seventy-first, with six companies of the second, and two companies of the third battalion of the Ninety-fifth regiment, in consequence of that officer being wounded. Colonel Reynell commanded the light brigade in the several operations that took place on the route to Paris, and entered that capital at the head of the brigade on the 7th of July 1815, and encamped with it in the _Champs Elysées_, being the only British troops quartered within the barriers. In this year he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and received the Cross of a Knight of the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, also a Cross of the fourth class of the Russian Military Order of St. George.

Colonel Reynell remained with the “_Army of Occupation_” in France until October 1818, when, after a grand review of the united British, Danish, and Russian contingents at Valenciennes, the Seventy-first marched to Calais, and embarked for England. Colonel Reynell continued in command of the regiment until the 12th of August 1819, the date of his promotion to the rank of Major-General.

In April 1820 Major-General Reynell was suddenly ordered to proceed to Glasgow, having been appointed to the staff of North Britain as a Major-General, in which country he remained until March 1821, when, in consequence of the tranquillity of Scotland, the extra general officer was discontinued. Immediately after he was appointed to the staff of the East Indies, and directed to proceed to Bombay, for which presidency he embarked in September following, and where he arrived in March 1822. After remaining there a month, Major-General Reynell was removed to the staff of the Bengal Presidency, by order of the Marquis of Hastings. In August Major-General Reynell proceeded up the Ganges, and took the command of the Meerut division on the 3rd of December 1822.

The next operation of importance in which Major-General Reynell was engaged was the siege of _Bhurtpore_. Early in December 1825 a large force had been assembled for this purpose, to the command of which he had been appointed, when, just as the troops were about to move into the Bhurtpore states, General Lord Combermere, the new Commander-in-Chief in India, arrived from England, and Major-General Reynell was then appointed to command the first division of infantry. He commanded that division during the siege, and directed the movements of the column of assault at the north-east angle on the 18th of January 1826, when the place was carried, and the citadel surrendered a few hours after. For this service he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath, as well as honored with the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.

Major-General Sir Thomas Reynell succeeded to the baronetcy upon the decease of his brother, Sir Richard Littleton Reynell in September 1829; and on the 30th of January 1832 was appointed by His Majesty King William IV. to be Colonel of the Ninety-ninth regiment, from which he was removed to the EIGHTY-SEVENTH Royal Irish Fusiliers on the 15th of August 1834. On the 10th of January 1837 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and on the 14th of June 1839 was appointed a member of the Consolidated Board of General Officers, for the inspection and regulation of the clothing of the army. On the 15th of March 1841 he was appointed by Her Majesty to the Colonelcy of the Seventy-first regiment. Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B., died at Avisford, near Arundel, on the 10th of February 1848.

HUGH VISCOUNT GOUGH, G.C.B.,

_Appointed from the Ninety-ninth regiment on the 15th of March 1841_.

APPENDIX.

_Troops in South America in 1806-7._