seventy-fifth regiment, his commission being dated 22nd of
November, 1800, from which he was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant in the sixty-second foot, on the 27th of June, 1802;
was appointed to the ninth battalion of reserve on the 20th of
December, 1803, and removed to the forty-second Royal Highland
regiment on the 5th of January of the following year. Lieutenant
Dick was promoted to the rank of Captain in the seventy-eighth
regiment on the 17th of April, 1804, and embarked with the second
battalion of that corps for Sicily in 1806; in the battle of
Maida, which was fought on the 4th of July, 1806, Captain Dick
was wounded; was also present at the taking of the fortress of
Catrone in Calabria. Admiral Sir John Duckworth having failed in
his mission to detach Turkey from the interests of France, Great
Britain determined to seize upon Egypt, as a check to any fresh
demonstration by the French against the British possessions in
the East Indies, and an armament sailed from Sicily in February,
1807, and landed at Aboukir on the 18th of the following month.
This expedition was under the command of Major-General Alexander
Mackenzie Fraser, the colonel of the seventy-eighth Highlanders,
and Captain Dick was embarked with the second battalion of that
regiment. On the 21st of March, 1807, Alexandria was occupied by
the British troops; this was the anniversary of the celebrated
battle fought there in 1801, when the gallant General Sir Ralph
Abercromby received the wound which terminated his career. A force
of fifteen hundred men was afterwards detached against Rosetta,
before which place Captain Dick was severely wounded. Egypt was
evacuated by the British in September, 1807, and the troops
returned to Sicily. Captain Dick was promoted to the rank of Major
on the 24th of April, 1808, and was appointed to the forty-second
Royal Highlanders on the 14th of July following. Major Dick
embarked with the second battalion of the forty-second regiment
for the Peninsula in June, 1809, and commanded a light battalion
at the battle of Busaco on the 27th of September, 1810, and during
the retreat to the lines of Torres Vedras; also in the action at
Foz D’Aronce on the 15th of March, 1811, where he was wounded;
and at the battle of Fuentes d’Onor on the 3rd and 5th of May
following. During the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, which was captured
on the 19th of January, 1812, Major Dick served with the second
battalion of the forty-second regiment, and also at the third
siege of Badajoz, which was taken on the 6th of April following.
On the first battalion of the forty-second joining the army in
the Peninsula towards the end of April, 1812, the soldiers of the
second battalion fit for duty were transferred to the former,
and the officers and staff of the latter returned to England to
recruit. He commanded a light battalion at the battle of Salamanca
on the 22nd of July, 1812. At the storming of Fort St. Michael,
near Burgos, on the 19th of September, Major Dick commanded the
first battalion of the forty-second, and his conduct was commended
in the Marquis of Wellington’s public despatch. The siege of the
Castle of Burgos was afterwards commenced, but the concentration
of the enemy’s forces obliged the British commander to raise the
siege and retire to Salamanca, and subsequently to Ciudad Rodrigo.
On the 8th of October, 1812, Major Dick was promoted to the brevet
rank of Lieut.-Colonel. In January 1813, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Dick
returned to England on two months’ leave of absence, and joined the
second battalion, which, after its return from the Peninsula in
1812, had remained in North Britain, until it was disbanded after
the termination of the war in 1814.
During the campaign of 1815, Lieut.-Colonel Dick served with the
forty-second regiment, and after the death of Lieut.-Colonel
Sir Robert Macara, K.C.B., at Quatre Bras on the 16th of June
of that year, the command of the regiment devolved on Brevet
Lieut.-Colonel Dick, who was slightly wounded in the hip and
severely in the left shoulder. He was promoted to be lieut.-colonel
of the forty-second regiment on the 18th of June, 1815, the date of
the battle of Waterloo, for which he received a medal, in addition
to the medal and two clasps conferred on him for the battles
of Busaco, Fuentes d’Onor, and Salamanca, and was appointed a
Companion of the Order of the Bath.
Lieut.-Colonel Dick was promoted to the rank of colonel on the 27th
of May, 1825, on being appointed aide-de-camp to King George IV.,
and in November, 1828, exchanged from the forty-second regiment to
the half-pay unattached. On the 10th of January, 1837, Colonel Dick
was promoted to the rank of major-general, and on the 19th of July,
1838, was nominated a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.
From December 1838 to July 1842, Major-General Sir Robert Dick
served upon the staff of the army at Madras, and was afterwards
removed to the Presidency of Bengal. Major-General Sir Robert Dick
was appointed by Her Majesty to be colonel of the SEVENTY-THIRD
regiment on the 10th of June, 1845.
Upon the invasion of the British territories in India by the Sikhs
in the beginning of December 1845, Major-General Sir Robert Dick
was appointed to the command of the third infantry division of the
“_Army of the Sutlej_,” and after sharing in the battle of Moodkee
on the 18th of December, and that of Ferozeshah on the 21st and
22nd of the same month, was wounded by a grape-shot at Sobraon
on the 10th of February, 1846, while personally animating the
troops under his command, from the effects of which he died in the
evening of that day. This victory brought the operations in the
field to a close, and the Sikh city of Lahore was occupied by the
British troops, where a treaty was concluded which was considered
calculated to prevent the repetition of a similar outrage.
SIR JOHN GREY, K.C.B.
_Appointed 3rd April, 1846._
Removed to the fifth Fusiliers on the 18th May, 1849.
RICHARD GODDARD HARE CLARGES, C.B.
_Appointed 18th May, 1849._
APPENDIX.
_Memoir of the Services of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie,
formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the_ SEVENTY-THIRD _regiment_.
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie entered the army on the 9th of
April, 1777, as ensign in the late eighty-fourth regiment, (which
was disbanded in 1784), and performed garrison duty at Halifax,
and other parts of Nova Scotia, for four years, namely, from the
year 1777 to 1781. On the 18th of January, 1781, he was promoted
to the rank of lieutenant in the late seventy-first regiment, and
did garrison duty at New York and Charleston, in North America,
and in the island of Jamaica for three years. He was placed on
half-pay on the 4th of June, 1784, and was appointed lieutenant
in the seventy-seventh regiment on the 25th of December, 1787,
and promoted to the rank of captain on the 9th of November, 1788.
Captain Macquarie served in various parts of India, from the 3rd
of August, 1788, to the 1st of January, 1803; was present at the
sieges of Cannanore, in 1790, at Seringapatam in 1791, at Cochin
in 1795, and at Colombo, in Ceylon, in 1796. As a reward for his
services he had received the brevet rank of major on the 3rd of
May, 1796, and continued to serve in various parts of India, during
the above-mentioned periods. Brevet Major Macquarie was present
at the battle of Seedaseer on the 6th of March, 1799, and at the
siege of Seringapatam in April and May following. Brevet Major
Macquarie was afterwards employed on service in Malabar, and on
the 12th of March, 1801, was promoted from the seventy-seventh
to the eighty-sixth regiment. Major Macquarie proceeded with the
eighty-sixth and other regiments ordered to embark from India,
under Major-General David Baird, to join the army in Egypt, and was
present at the siege of Alexandria in August, 1801. In November
following he was promoted to the brevet rank of lieut.-colonel.
He served at home as Assistant Adjutant-General on the London
District Staff, from July, 1803, until March, 1805; and afterwards
in India, with the eighty-sixth regiment in the field in 1805 and
1806. On the 30th of May, 1805, he was appointed lieut.-colonel
in the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, which corps he returned home to
join in 1807, and in May, 1809, embarked with his regiment for
New South Wales, of which colony, and its dependencies, he was
appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief. On the 25th July, 1810,
he was advanced to the brevet rank of colonel, was appointed
brigadier-general on the 21st of February, 1811, and promoted
major-general on the 4th of June, 1813. His decease occurred in
July, 1824.
_Memoir of the Services of Lieut.-General Sir Maurice Charles
O’Connell, K.C.H., formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the_ SEVENTY-THIRD
_regiment_.
This officer, after serving with the rank of captain in the
emigrant army under the Duke of Brunswick in the campaign of 1792,
entered the British army sent to the Continent on the breaking out
of the war in 1793. He was appointed captain in the fourth regiment
of the late Irish brigade on the 1st of October, 1794, and was
placed on half-pay on the 1st of March, 1798, on the reduction of
that regiment; he was appointed captain in the first West India
regiment on the 21st of May, 1800, and joined shortly afterwards
at St. Lucia; Captain O’Connell was appointed major of brigade to
the forces at Surinam in February, 1802, and served in that colony
until its restoration to the Dutch in December of that year, when
he joined his regiment at St. Vincent. In May, 1803, he proceeded
in command of five companies to Grenada, whence he was ordered
with the whole of the regiment to Dominica in 1804. On the 1st of
January, 1805, he received the brevet rank of major. He commanded
the light company at Roseau, in Dominica, when an attack was made
on that capital on the 22nd of February, 1805, by a French force
commanded by General La Grange, and successfully resisted, during
the whole day, repeated attacks made by very superior numbers of
the enemy on the posts occupied by Brevet Major O’Connell, with
the forty-sixth regiment, his own company of the first West India
regiment, and some colonial militia. He had been appointed major
of brigade to the forces at Dominica in February, 1805, and on the
23rd of May following, was appointed major of the fifth West India
regiment. In September he returned to England. For his services in
the defence of Dominica, Major O’Connell received the thanks of the
House of Assembly in that island, and was presented by that body
with a sword, value one hundred guineas; he also received a sword,
value fifty pounds, and a piece of plate, value one hundred pounds,
from the committee of the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd’s. On the 15th of
October, 1806, Major O’Connell was appointed to the SEVENTY-THIRD
regiment, in which he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel
on the 4th of May, 1809, and was appointed Lieut.-Governor of New
South Wales, where he continued until April, 1814, in which month
he embarked in command of the first battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD
regiment for Ceylon. In January, 1815, Lieut.-Colonel O’Connell
marched in command of a division of the army under Lieut.-General
Robert Brownrigg into the territories of the King of Candy, the
conquest of which was achieved in forty days, and crowned by
the capture of the reigning monarch, who was deposed by his own
subjects, and brought a prisoner to Colombo. On the 12th of August,
1819, Lieut.-Colonel O’Connell was promoted to the rank of colonel,
and to that of major-general on the 22nd of July, 1830. In 1838,
Major-General O’Connell was appointed to the command of the troops
in New South Wales, which appointment he held from December of
that year until December, 1847. On the 23rd of November, 1841, Sir
Maurice O’Connell was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general, and
was appointed colonel of the eighty-first regiment on the 6th of
December, 1842, from which he was removed to the eightieth regiment
on the 15th of January, 1844. The decease of Lieut.-General Sir
Maurice Charles O’Connell, K.C.H., occurred at Sydney, in New South
Wales, on the 25th of May, 1848.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,
when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg x: ‘the military foree’ replaced by ‘the military force’.
Pg xxxii (APPENDIX): The third entry ‘British and Hanoverian ... 73’
does not exist. The last page of the book is numbered ‘71’.
Pg 12: ‘above eSringapatam’ replaced by ‘above Seringapatam’.
Pg 39: Missing Sidenote for ‘1843’ inserted at the start
of the paragraph ‘During the year 1843 ...’.
Pg 40: Sidenotes for ‘1848’ and ‘1849’ moved down to the next
paragraph.
Pg 59: ‘appointed Govenor’ replaced by ‘appointed Governor’.