Page:Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, Or the West Essex Regiment of Foot.djvu/69

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SUCCESSION OF COLONELS.
59

his regiment: having considerable influence in the county of Surrey, where the estates of his family were situated, his corps received many recruits from that part of the country; he represented Guildford in Parliament many years. He was a generous and good man, and was honored with the favor of the Duke of York. He died on the 19th of March, 1818, at Wonersh in Surrey, the seat of Lord Grantley.


Sir John Murray, Baronet.

Appointed 31st March, 1818.

Sir John Murray, a baronet of Nova Scotia, entered the army as ensign in the Third Foot Guards in 1788, and rose to the rank of lieutenant and captain in 1793. He served in Flanders as aide-de-camp to Field-Marshal Freytag, and afterwards to His Royal Highness the Duke of York; and was at the actions of St. Amand and Famars, and the siege of Valenciennes; also at the siege of Dunkirk, and the engagements at Maubege and near Cambresis. In the spring of 1794 he was promoted to the rank of major, and a few weeks afterwards to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Eighty-fourth Regiment. He was present at the various actions near Tournay, in the same year, and in the retreat to Holland. He afterwards served under General Sir Alured Clarke, and was at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in September, 1795. In 1799 he commanded a body of troops on the Red Sea; and, in 1800, he was promoted to the rank of colonel. He performed the duties of quarter-master-general to the troops which proceeded from India to Egypt under Major-General Sir David Baird; and afterwards, returning to India, commanded the Bombay division of the army which joined Major-General the Honorable Arthur Wellesley, at Poonah, during the Mahratta war, in 1803. He also commanded a body of troops during the subsequent hostilities with Scindeah and Holkar. Having been promoted to the rank of major-general in 1805, and returned to Europe, he served on the staff of the eastern district, from December of that year to April, 1808; and he subsequently commanded the King’s German Legion in the expedition to the Baltic, &c., under Sir John Moore, whom he accompanied to Portugal. Remaining in that country, he served under Lieutenant-General