vade France, Fane once more took his place in front of Hill's corps upon the right of the army. He was engaged in innumerable little skirmishes during the advance, and distinguished himself in the charges of the British cavalry which completed the rout of Soult's army at Orthes. He then once more took his place in front of Hill's column, and was present, though not actively employed, at the final battle of Toulouse. On the conclusion of peace Fane succeeded Sir Stapleton Cotton in command of all the British cavalry upon the continent, which he conducted safely right across France to Calais. During these long and varied campaigns Fane had won the reputation of being the best commander of cavalry in the army, next to Sir Stapleton Cotton. He was made colonel of the 23rd light dragoons on 13 July 1814, from which he was transferred on 3 Aug. to the colonelcy of his old regiment, the 4th royal Irish dragoon guards; he received a gold cross with one clasp for the battles of Vimeiro, Corunna, Talavera, Vittoria, and Orthes, in which he had been actively engaged; he received the thanks of parliament in his place in the House of Commons; he was made one of the first K.C.B.'s on the extension of the order of the Bath, and he was appointed inspector-general of cavalry for Great Britain. In 1815 he prepared the cavalry regiments which were employed at the battle of Waterloo, though he was not himself present in that campaign. In 1816 he was appointed to a special command in the midland counties to put down riots. In 1817 he was made a local lieutenant-general for the continent, and appointed to command all the cavalry and horse artillery in the army of occupation in France, a post which he held until the complete evacuation of that country in 1818. In that year he resigned his seat in the House of Commons, and retired to Fulbeck in Lincolnshire, a country seat which he had inherited on his father's death in 1802. He lived in retirement for some years, but was promoted in due course to be lieutenant-general on 12 Aug. 1819, made a G.C.B. in 1826, and appointed colonel of the 1st or king's dragoon guards, a colonelcy which ranks next to those of the regiments forming the brigade of household cavalry, on 24 Feb. 1827. In 1829 the Duke of Wellington induced Fane to accept the office of surveyor-general of the ordnance. He re-entered the House of Commons as M.P. for Sandwich, and in 1830–1 was M.P. for Hastings. He went out of office when the reform cabinet of Earl Grey was formed, but continued on intimate terms with the Duke of Wellington, who appointed him commander-in-chief in India during his short tenure of office in 1835. Lord Melbourne's cabinet confirmed the appointment, and Fane took over the command-in-chief from Lord William Bentinck in September 1835, when he found India in a state of profound peace. Fane personally inspected every station in his command in 1836, and an interesting account of this tour of inspection, and of his interview with Ranjít Singh, the famous ruler of the Punjab, was published by his nephew and aide-de-camp, Henry Edward Fane. Towards the end of his period of command there were signs of war upon the north-west frontier, and in 1838 Fane got ready an army to proceed to the relief of Herat, which was then besieged by the Persians, and Lord Auckland and his advisers then began to mature the plans which brought about the first Afghan war. Fane entirely disapproved of this policy, and resigned his office, but the authorities at home took the unusual course of refusing to accept this resignation in January 1839, on the ground that they could find no general competent to succeed him. On Fane, therefore, devolved the final preparations for the Afghan war, and in 1839 he directed the operations, which led to the acquiescence of the Mírs of Sind in the proposed violation of their territory for the purpose of the invasion of Afghanistan. His health was by this time completely undermined, and on his reiterated demand to resign, Major-general Sir Jasper Nicholls, the commander-in-chief in Madras, was appointed to succeed him. He then handed over the command of the expeditionary army against Afghanistan to Major-general Sir John Keane, the commander-in-chief in Bombay, and prepared to leave India. He left that country in the last stage of weakness, and he died at sea on board the Malabar off St. Michael's in the Azores, at the comparatively early age of sixty-one, on 24 March 1840.
[Army Lists; Royal Military Calendar; Napier's Peninsular War; Five Years in India, by Henry Edward Fane, 1843.]
FANE, JOHN, seventh Earl of Westmorland (1682?–1762), third son of Vere Fane, the fourth earl, educated at Oxford, followed a military life in his youth, and was made captain of horse in March 1708–9. He distinguished himself under the Duke of Marlborough, and became lieutenant-colonel in 1710, colonel of the 37th regiment of foot 1715, captain and colonel of the first troop of grenadier guards 1717, and captain and colonel of the first troop of horse guards in 1733. On 4 Oct. 1733 he was created a peer of Ireland, with the title of Lord Catherlough, baron
