Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/421

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his policy as Cornwallis, but by his orders for the restoration of territory annexed by Lake sacrificed the hard-bought military advantages acquired. Lake commenced his return march to British territory on 9 Jan. 1806. On 19 Feb. 1806 he was formally reappointed commander-in-chief by the court of directors. He spent some time at Delhi, arranging affairs there, and, leaving Ochterlony in command, proceeded to Cawnpore, and thence at the end of the year to Calcutta. There he embarked for England on 9 Feb. 1807, receiving such a farewell from Europeans and natives alike as never had been accorded to any public servant before. After his return to England he was advanced to a viscountcy under his former titles (31 Oct. 1807). A violent cold, caught while attending the court-martial at Chelsea on Lieutenant-general Bulstrode Whitelocke, ended fatally. He died at his town residence in Lower Brook Street on 20 Feb. 1808, aged 64, and was buried at Aston Clinton.

Few men possessed a larger circle of personal friends than Lake, and no commander-in-chief was more generally popular with all ranks. His influence over his soldiers was unbounded; and his calmness in danger, and his self-reliance and power of inspiring confidence in others, have never been surpassed. ‘He had but one way of dealing with the native armies of India, that of moving straight forward, of attacking them wherever he could find them. He never was so great as on the battle-field. He could think more clearly amidst the rain of bullets than in the calm of his own tent. In this respect he resembled Clive. It was this quality which enabled him to dare almost the impossible. That which in others would have been rash was in Lake prudent daring’ (Malleson, Decisive Battles of India, p. 294). At the time of his death Lake was a full general, colonel of the 80th Staffordshire volunteer regiment of foot, governor of Dumbarton Castle, equerry to the prince of Wales, and receiver-general and a member of council for the duchy of Cornwall. He died a poor man. A pension of 2,000l. a year was settled on the two next successors to the title; but the vote for a public monument was not pressed by Lord Castlereagh (Parl. Debates, x. 871). A portrait of Lake is in the Oriental Club.

Lake married, in 1770, Elizabeth, only daughter of Edward Barker of St. Julians, Hertfordshire, sometime consul at Tripoli. She died 22 July 1788, and was buried at Aston Clinton. Besides five daughters, there were three sons by the marriage: 1. Francis Gerard, page of honour and afterwards equerry to the Prince of Wales, and sometime an officer in the 54th, 1st guards, and 60th royal Americans. He succeeded his father in the title, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general. He died without male heirs in 1836. 2. George Augustus Frederick, page to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards in the 94th Scotch brigade and 29th regiments. He was a very popular and distinguished officer of his father's staff in India, and was killed as lieutenant-colonel commanding 29th foot, when driving the enemy from the heights of Roleia (Roliça), in Portugal, on 17 Aug. 1808. There is a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, erected by the officers and men of the 29th regiment. 3. Warwick, who rose to the rank of post-captain in the royal navy, but was dismissed the service by sentence of court-martial in 1810 for an act of gross cruelty when in command of H.M.S. Recruit, three years before, in abandoning on a desert island in the West Indies a seaman, one Richard Jeffery by name (see James, Naval Hist. iv. 273–5; also Parl. Debates under date). He succeeded his brother as third viscount. At his death, which took place in London on 24 June 1848, the title, in default of male heirs, became extinct.

[Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, ii. 75 (pedigree); Collins's Peerage, 1812 edit. vi. 432–53; Burke's Extinct Peerage, 1882 edit., under title; Hamilton's Hist. Grenadier Guards, 1872, vol. ii.; Dunfermline's Life of Sir Ralph Abercromby, 1858, chap. iv.; Lecky's Hist. of England, 1890, vol. viii.; Cornwallis Correspondence, vols. i–iii.; Castlereagh Despatches and Correspondence, vol. i.; Wellesley Despatches in India, 1836–7, vols. ii–iv.; Mill's Hist. of India, ed. Wilson, vol. vi.; Thorn's Narrative of Campaigns under Lord Lake, 1818; Memoirs of John Shipp, new edit., 1890, pp. 84–130; Williams's Hist. Bengal Native Infantry, 1817; Georgian Era, vol. ii.; M[alleson] Essays on Indian Historical Subjects, from Calcutta Review, 1862; Malleson's Decisive Battles of India, 1883, ‘Leswarree;’ European Mag. April 1808; Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS.; Wellesley Papers and Pelham Papers.]

H. M. C.

LAKE, Sir HENRY ATWELL (1808–1881), colonel of the royal engineers, third son of Sir James Samuel William Lake, fourth baronet, by his marriage with Maria, daughter of Samuel Turner, was born at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, in 1808. He was educated at Harrow and at the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe. On 15 Dec. 1826 he obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the Madras engineers, and went to India. Until 1854 he was employed in the public works department of India, and principally upon irrigation works. He became lieutenant 4 March 1831, brevet-