Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brackenbury, Edward
BRACKENBURY, Sir EDWARD (1785–1864), lieutenant-colonel, a direct descendant from Sir Robert Brackenbury, lieutenant of the Tower of London in the time of Richard III, was second son of Richard Brackenbury of Aswardby, Lincolnshire, by his wife Janetta, daughter of George Gunn of Edinburgh, and was born in 1785. Having entered the army as an ensign in the 61st regiment in 1803, and become a lieutenant on 8 Dec. in the same year, he served in Sicily, in Calabria, at Scylla Castle and at Gibraltar, 1807-8, and in the Peninsula from 1809 to the end of the war in 1814. At the battle of Salamanca he took a piece of artillery from the enemy, guarded by four soldiers, close to their retiring column, without any near or immediate support, and in many other important engagements conducted himself with distinguished valour. As a reward for his numerous services he received the war medal with nine clasps.
On 22 July 1812 he was promoted to a captaincy, and after the conclusion of the war was attached to the Portuguese and Spanish army from 25 Oct. 1814 to 25 Dec. 1816, when he was placed on half-pay. He served as a major in the 28th foot from 1 Nov. 1827 to 31 Jan. 1828, when he was again placed on half-pay. His foreign services were further recognised by his being made a knight of the Portuguese order of the Tower and Sword in 1824, a knight of the Spanish order of St. Ferdinand, and a commander of the Portuguese order of St. Bento d'Avis.
Brackenbury, who was knighted by the king at Windsor Castle on 26 Aug. 1836, was a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant for the county of Lincoln. He attained to the rank of lieutenant-colonel on 10 Jan. 1837, and ten years afterwards sold out of the army. He died at Skendleby Hall, Lincolnshire, on 1 June 1864.
He was twice married: first, on 9 June 1827, to Maria, daughter of the Rev. Edward Bromhead of Reepham near Lincoln, and, secondly, in March 1847, to Eleanor, daughter of Addison Fenwick of Bishopwearmouth, Durham, and widow of W. Brown Clark of Belford Hall, Northumberland. She died in 1862.
[Gent. Mag. 1864, part ii. 123; Cannon's The Sixty-first Regiment (1837), pp. 24, 31, 67.]