employed in Affghanistan, on the 20th February, 1843, alluded in
the following terms to Lieutenant Mein’s conduct, while serving
with the army on its retreat from Cabool:--“I have said that,
in the course of this campaign, instances of the most generous
devotion, of friendly sympathy, and of desperate fidelity, were
displayed, which deserve at least a passing notice. Lieutenant
Eyre says: ‘Lieutenant Sturt (son-in-law to Sir Robert and Lady
Sale) had nearly cleared the defile, when he received his wound,
and would have been left on the ground to be hacked to pieces by
the Ghazees, who followed in the rear to complete the work of
slaughter, but for the generous intrepidity of Lieutenant Mein of
Her Majesty’s THIRTEENTH Light Infantry, who, on learning what
had befallen him, went back to his succour, and stood by him for
several minutes, at the imminent risk of his own life, vainly
entreating aid from the passers by. He was at length, joined by
Serjeant Deane, of the Sappers, with whose assistance he dragged
his friend, on a quilt, through the remainder of the Pass, when he
succeeded in mounting him on a miserable pony, and conducted him
in safety to the camp, where the unfortunate officer lingered till
the following morning, and was the only man of the whole force who
received Christian burial. Lieutenant Mein was himself at this very
time suffering from a dangerous wound in the head received in the
previous October, and his heroic disregard of self, and fidelity to
his friend in the hour of danger, are well deserving of a record
in the annals of British valour and virtue; I think, Sir, it is
but just that the name of Lieutenant Mein should be mentioned with
honour in the House of Commons, and I do not regret having noticed
this circumstance, as it has called forth so generous and general
an expression of sympathy and approval.’”
[24] The regiment lost by death a very promising young officer,
Lieutenant Scott, this night; and Lieutenant Frere also fell a
victim to the fatigues and vicissitudes of the campaign on the 18th
November, 1842.
SUCCESSION OF COLONELS
OF THE
THIRTEENTH, OR, PRINCE ALBERT’S REGIMENT
OF
LIGHT INFANTRY.
THEOPHILUS EARL OF HUNTINGDON.
_Appointed 20th June, 1685._
THEOPHILUS seventh EARL OF HUNTINGDON succeeded to that dignity on
the decease of his father in 1655. In the reign of King Charles
II. he was attached to the principles entertained by James Duke
of Monmouth, who was at the head of a political party in the
kingdom; but when he suspected the views of those with whom he
was connected to be destructive of the constitution, he quitted
their party; and in 1683 he was appointed a member of the Privy
Council. He held several appointments in the reign of King James
II.; was captain of the band of gentleman pensioners, now the
honorable corps of gentlemen-at-arms; and on the breaking out
of the rebellion of James Duke of Monmouth, in June, 1685, he
exerted himself in raising men for the king’s service, and was
appointed colonel of one of the regiments of foot embodied on that
occasion, now the THIRTEENTH Light Infantry. At the Revolution in
1688, he adhered to King James II., and being with his regiment
in garrison at Plymouth, he was arrested by Colonel the Earl of
Bath, Lieut.-Colonel Hastings, and other officers, who declared
for the Prince of Orange. Continuing firm in his adherence to the
Roman Catholic cause, he was removed from his appointments by King
William, was excluded from the benefit of the Act of Indemnity
passed on the 23rd of May, 1690, and upon the receipt of advice of
the intended descent, in favour of King James, from La Hogue, in
1692, he was sent a prisoner to the Tower of London; but he was not
long detained in confinement. The Earl of Huntingdon was one of the
peers who protested against the Act of Settlement in 1701. He died
suddenly at his house in Charles-street, St. James’s, on the 30th
of May, 1701.
FERDINANDO HASTINGS.
_Appointed--December, 1688._
FERDINANDO HASTINGS, cousin of Theophilus seventh Earl of
Huntingdon, entered the army in the reign of King Charles II., and
was promoted to the command of a company in the first foot guards;
in 1686, he was appointed lieut.-colonel of the regiment which
is now the THIRTEENTH Light Infantry. At the Revolution in 1688,
he united with the Earl of Bath in bringing over the garrison of
Plymouth to the interest of the Prince of Orange, and was rewarded
with the colonelcy of his regiment. He served in Scotland under
Major-General Hugh Mackay, against the clans under Viscount Dundee,
and distinguished himself at the battle of Killicrankie on the
27th of June, 1689. He afterwards proceeded with his regiment
to Ireland, and served at the battle of the Boyne, and at the
reduction of Cork and Kinsale, in 1690: he evinced ability and
personal bravery in several detached services in 1691, and served
in the expedition, under the Duke of Leinster, in 1692. He was
afterwards found guilty of extortion in his regiment, and was
cashiered on the 4th of March, 1695.
SIR JOHN JACOB, BART.
_Appointed 13th March, 1689._
SIR JOHN JACOB, Bart., of Bromley, in the county of Middlesex,
entered the army in the summer of 1685, and was many years an
officer in the regiment which is now the THIRTEENTH Light Infantry,
in which corps he rose to the rank of lieut.-colonel. He evinced
great courage, and received a severe wound at the battle of
Killicrankie, in June, 1689, where Viscount Dundee was killed; also
behaved with signal gallantry, under the eye of his sovereign,
at the battle of the Boyne in 1690; and served under the Earl of
Marlborough at the capture of Cork and Kinsale. King William
highly approved of his conduct, and promoted him to the colonelcy
of his regiment in 1695. Being afterwards desirous of retiring
from the service, he obtained permission to sell his regiment to
his brother-in-law, James Earl of Barrymore, for fourteen hundred
guineas. He died in 1739.
JAMES, EARL OF BARRYMORE.
_Appointed 15th March, 1702._
JAMES, fourth EARL OF BARRYMORE, embraced the interests of the
Prince of Orange at the Revolution in 1688, and was nominated
lieut.-colonel in the army on the 31st of December, 1688. He
subsequently held the commission of captain in the seventeenth
foot, and purchased the colonelcy of the THIRTEENTH regiment in
March, 1702. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in
1706, and to that of major-general in 1708. He served in Portugal
in the war of the Spanish succession, and led his regiment to the
charge, at the battle of the Caya, on the 7th of May, 1709, with
great gallantry, overthrowing all opposition, and recapturing the
Portuguese guns; but not being supported by the Portuguese horse
of the left wing, his regiment became insulated, and he was taken
prisoner. In 1710 he was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general;
and in 1713 he was sworn a member of the Privy Council. He was
elected a member of the British Parliament for the Borough of
Stockbridge in 1713, and afterwards for Wigan in Lancashire. He
retired from his regiment in 1715. His decease occurred on the
5th of January, 1747, at Castlelyons, where a magnificent marble
monument was erected to his memory.
STANHOPE COTTON.
_Appointed 8th July, 1715._
This officer served with reputation in the wars of Queen Anne, as
captain, major, and lieut.-colonel of foot; he was several years in
Bowles’s regiment, which was disbanded at the peace of Utrecht; and
he was rewarded with the rank of colonel, and the appointment of
lieut.-governor of Gibraltar. In 1715 he obtained the colonelcy of
the THIRTEENTH foot, then in garrison at Gibraltar, and under his
care that regiment was celebrated for its efficiency and orderly
conduct. He died on the 7th of December, 1725.
LORD MARK KERR.
_Appointed 25th December, 1725._
LORD MARK KERR, fourth son of Robert fourth Earl of Lothian,
entered the army on the 1st of January, 1694, and served under
King William III. in Flanders. On the 1st of January, 1706, he was
promoted to the colonelcy of a newly-raised regiment of foot, with
which he served in the expedition under the Earl of Rivers in the
same year, and when the projected descent on the coast of France
was abandoned, he proceeded to Portugal, and afterwards to Spain.
He commanded his regiment at the battle of Almanza, on the 25th of
April, 1707, which was formed between two brigades of Portuguese
cavalry which quitted the field. His regiment was engaged with
very superior numbers: it behaved with great gallantry, but it
was literally cut to pieces; his lordship was wounded in the arm,
his lieut.-colonel and major were both killed, and his regiment
lost twenty-three officers killed, wounded, and prisoners. In 1711
he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and in 1712 he
was nominated colonel of the twenty-ninth regiment. He commanded
a brigade of infantry in the expedition to Spain, under Lord
(afterwards Viscount) Cobham, in 1719, and served at the capture
of Vigo. In 1725 he obtained the colonelcy of the THIRTEENTH
foot,--was promoted to the rank of major-general in 1727,--removed
to the eleventh dragoons in 1732, and advanced to the rank of
lieut.-general in 1735. In 1740 he was appointed governor of the
island of Guernsey; in 1743 he obtained the rank of general, and
in 1745 he was constituted governor of Edinburgh Castle; in 1751
he was placed on the staff of Ireland. It is recorded in the
Peerage of Scotland that--‘He was a man of marked and decided
character; with the strictest notions of honour and good-breeding,
he retained, perhaps, too punctilious an observance of etiquette,
as it gave him an air of frivolity. He was soldier-like in his
appearance; formal in his deportment; whimsical, even finical, in
his dress; but he commanded respect wherever he went, for none
dared to laugh at his singularities. Manners, which in foreign
courts, where they had been acquired, would have passed unobserved,
were considered as fantastic in his own country, and were apt to
lead his impatient spirit into rencontres too often fatal to his
antagonists. Naturally of a good temper, his frequent appeals to
the sword on trivial occasions drew on him the imputation of being
a quarrelsome man; but he was inoffensive unless provoked; and
never meddled with any one, but such as chose to meddle with him.’
He died on the 2nd of February, 1752.
JOHN MIDDLETON.
_Appointed 29th May, 1732._
JOHN MIDDLETON obtained a commission in the army in the reign of
King William III., and was promoted to the rank of captain in 1706;
he served in Spain in the war of the Spanish succession, and also
on board the fleet, where his company was employed as Marines. He
was many years an officer in the twenty-fifth foot, in which corps
he rose to the rank of lieut.-colonel, and he was promoted to the
rank of colonel in 1711. He commanded the twenty-fifth regiment in
Scotland, under the Duke of Argyle, during the rebellion of the
Earl of Mar; and in 1721 he was rewarded with the colonelcy of that
corps, which he commanded until 1732, when he was removed to the
THIRTEENTH foot. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general
in 1735. His decease occurred on the 4th of May, 1739, at which
period he was member of Parliament for Aberdeen.
HENRY PULTENEY.
_Appointed 5th July, 1739._
HENRY PULTENEY was appointed ensign in a regiment of foot on the
10th of January, 1703, and he served in Queen Anne’s wars, under
the celebrated John Duke of Marlborough. He was several years
in the first foot guards, and was promoted, in July, 1715, to
the command of the grenadier company in the second foot guards,
with the rank of lieut.-colonel. In 1733 he was promoted to the
commission of second major, with the rank of colonel, and in 1734
to that of first major in the second foot guards, from which he was
removed, in 1739, to the colonelcy of the THIRTEENTH regiment; at
the same time he was appointed governor of Hull. He was promoted
to the rank of brigadier-general in 1742, and accompanied the army
to Flanders under the Earl of Stair. In 1743 he was advanced to
the rank of major-general; in 1747 to that of lieut.-general, and
in 1765 to that of general. On the elevation of his brother to
the dignity of Earl of Bath, he was distinguished by the style of
Honorable; and upon his brother’s decease, without issue in 1764,
he succeeded to his lordship’s immense estates. He afterwards
resigned his commissions. He died 26th of October, 1767.
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS WILLIAM HENRY DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, K.G., &c. &c.
&c.
_Appointed 25th June, 1766._
WILLIAM HENRY, third son of Frederick Prince of Wales, (who died
20th of March, 1751) was elected a Knight of the most noble order
of the Garter, in 1762; and a few days before he was of full age,
viz., on the 17th November, 1764, his brother, King George III.,
conferred on him the dignity of DUKE OF GLOUCESTER AND EDINBURGH,
and Earl of Connaught; in December following he took his seat in
the Privy Council. In 1766 His Royal Highness was appointed colonel
of the THIRTEENTH regiment; and on the decease of his brother,
Edward, Duke of York, in the autumn of 1767, he had a grant from
the King of Cranburne-chase lodge, Windsor Forest. In December of
the same year he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and
appointed colonel of the third foot guards; and in April, 1770, he
was advanced to the rank of lieut.-general, and nominated to the
colonelcy of the first regiment of foot guards. He was promoted
to the rank of general in 1772, and to that of field marshal in
1793. His Royal Highness was distinguished as a polite scholar and
an accomplished gentleman, engaging in his manners, respectful
to his sovereign, affable to his acquaintance, and generous and
condescending to his inferiors; a liberal supporter of every
institution calculated to promote the interests of society,
accompanied by a modest serenity of conduct which kept many
instances of his generosity out of public view; and a meekness of
disposition pervaded every feature of his character, which insured
for him the love of all ranks of society. He died on the 25th of
August, 1805.
THE HONORABLE JAMES MURRAY.
_Appointed 16th December, 1767._
THE HONORABLE JAMES MURRAY, son of the Duke of Athol, served
several years in the fifteenth foot, of which regiment he was
appointed lieut.-colonel on the 15th of January, 1751. He served
with his regiment in North America, in the early part of the seven
years’ war, had the local rank of colonel in that country on the
7th of January, 1758, and was appointed colonel-commandant in the
sixtieth, Royal American regiment, on the 24th of October, 1759. He
also served in Germany, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and
was wounded in the breast with a musket ball, which could not be
extracted, and he was never afterwards able to sleep in a recumbent
posture. He was promoted to the rank of major-general in 1762,
appointed colonel of the THIRTEENTH regiment in 1767, in succession
to His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, advanced to the rank
of lieut.-general in 1772, to that of general in 1783, and removed
to the twenty-first, or Royal North British Fusiliers, in 1789. He
also held the appointment of governor of Hull. He died in 1794, and
was buried in Westminster Abbey.
GEORGE AINSLIE.
_Appointed 5th June, 1789._
This officer was appointed in 1755, sub-lieutenant in the second,
or Scots, troop of horse grenadier guards, of which the celebrated
General Eliott, afterwards Lord Heathfield, Baron Gibraltar, was
lieut.-colonel; and when Colonel Eliott raised his famed regiment
of “Light Horse,” now the fifteenth, or King’s Hussars, lieutenant
Ainslie was appointed captain of the first troop in that regiment.
He proceeded with the fifteenth light dragoons to Germany, in 1760,
and distinguished himself in the memorable action at Emsdorf, where
his regiment acquired great honour. He was also present at numerous
other actions, where “Eliott’s Light Horse” availed themselves of
every opportunity to acquire additional laurels; and on the 29th of
March, 1762, he was promoted to the majority of the regiment. At
the engagement near Homburg, on the 1st of July, 1762, he highly
distinguished himself, and was commended in the public despatch of
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. In the action near Friedberg, on the
30th of August following, he was attacked by three French hussars,
and received a dangerous wound in the head. He was promoted to the
lieut.-colonelcy of the fifteenth light dragoons in 1770, to the
rank of colonel in the army in 1779, and to that of major-general
in 1782: in 1789 King George III. rewarded him with the colonelcy
of the THIRTEENTH foot, His Majesty having frequently witnessed,
and expressed his high approbation of, the condition of the
fifteenth light dragoons under colonel Ainslie’s command. He was
afterwards appointed lieut.-governor of Scilly Island, was promoted
to the rank of lieut.-general in 1796, and to that of general in
1801. He died in 1804.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
_Appointed 11th July, 1804._
On the 21st of April, 1769, Alexander Campbell was appointed ensign
in the forty-second, Royal Highland regiment, then in Ireland, and
in December, 1770, he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the second
battalion of the Royals, which he joined at the island of Minorca;
in September, 1772, he was advanced to captain of a company in the
fiftieth, from which he exchanged to the sixty-second regiment in
November following. He embarked for Canada with the sixty-second
on the breaking out of the American war, and served the campaign
of 1776, under General Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester. In
1777, he served under Lieut.-General Burgoyne, in the desperate
attempt to advance from Canada, through the country, in a state
of rebellion, to Albany, shared in the toils and fighting of
that enterprise, and was included in the convention at Saratoga.
On the 26th of December, 1777, he was promoted to major of the
seventy-fourth regiment, and proceeding to New York, he was
appointed to act as major of the first battalion of light infantry,
with which he served two campaigns, and at the termination of the
war he commanded at Penobscot. On the 31st of December, 1782, he
was promoted to the lieut.-colonelcy of the sixty-second foot,
with which regiment he served in Scotland and Ireland until June,
1789, when he exchanged to captain and lieut.-colonel in the third
foot guards. He served the campaign of 1793, and part of that of
1794, in Flanders, under His Royal Highness the Duke of York; he
had, in the meantime, been promoted to the rank of colonel (12th
October, 1793), and commissioned to raise the 116th regiment of
foot, and he withdrew from Flanders. He subsequently commanded a
brigade in the forces under Lieut.-General the Earl of Moira, and
was promoted to the rank of major-general, on the 26th of February,
1795. In 1796 he served under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby,
in the West Indies, and was appointed colonel of the seventh West
India regiment, in November of that year. He served on the staff at
Newcastle in 1797; in Ireland in 1798; and afterwards in Scotland.
In 1802 his regiment was disbanded; he was promoted to the rank of
lieut.-general in April of that year, and was placed on the staff
of Ireland, and subsequently on that of Scotland, where he served
five years. In 1804 he was appointed colonel of the THIRTEENTH
regiment; in 1812 he was promoted to the rank of general, and was
removed to the thirty-second regiment in 1813. He died 24th of
February, 1832.
EDWARD MORRISON.
_Appointed 15th February, 1813._
This officer entered the army as an ensign in the Coldstream
Guards, on the 20th January, 1777; was shortly after employed
as Assistant Quartermaster-General; and on the 15th September,
1780, succeeded to a lieutenancy with the rank of captain: from
November 1781, to June, 1783, he served as aide-de-camp to the
commander-in-chief in the West Indies. He was promoted to a
company, with the rank of lieut.-colonel on 13th January, 1790,
and in 1793, was appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General; but
obtained permission to join the first battalion of the Coldstream
Guards in Flanders, in 1794. He was appointed Governor of Chester
on 2nd November, 1796. On the 26th February, 1795, he received
the brevet rank of colonel; and on the 19th November, 1800, was
appointed colonel of the Leicester fencibles, and on 1st January,
1805, of a battalion in the sixtieth regiment. He was advanced to
the rank of major-general on the 1st January, 1798, and in April
following was appointed to the Staff in Ireland, where he commanded
the Limerick District during the rebellion. He was removed to the
Staff in England in July, 1803, and on the 1st January, 1805, was
advanced to the rank of lieut.-general; in May, 1809, was appointed
lieut.-general and commander of the forces at Jamaica; and was
promoted to the rank of general, on the 4th June, 1814. On the
15th February of the previous year, His Majesty King George III.
conferred on him the colonelcy of the THIRTEENTH light infantry,
which he held to the period of his decease, which occurred on the
3rd December, 1843.
SIR ROBERT HENRY SALE, G.C.B.
_Appointed 15th December, 1843._