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Biographical Note
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, GCB, GCMG, KTS
October 1748 – December 1843
Scottish Aristocrat, Farmer, Politician, Traveler and Soldier.
Thomas Graham was the
third and only surviving son of Thomas Græme of Balgowan, in Perthshire
and Lady Christian Hope, a daughter of the first Earl of Hopetoun. Born
in 1748, he attended Christchurch College, Oxford, in 1766; the
following year the death of his father put him in possession of a
handsome and unencumbered estate. Following university he traveled
broadly on the Continent learning French and German and observing
agricultural practices. Upon return to his Scottish estate Graham set up
as a simple gentleman farmer. He enclosed his lands, erected comfortable
farmhouses and offices, granted leases to his tenants, provided them
with improved implements of husbandry and encouraged them to cultivate
on a large scale potatoes and turnips, which had hitherto been regarded
as mere garden plants. He also set himself to cultivate improved breeds
of horses, cattle, and sheep. In 1785, he purchased the estate of
Lynedoch or Lednock, situated in a picturesque part of the valley of the
Almond. He was distinguished for his skill in country sports. He rode
with the foxhounds, and accompanied the Duke of Athole—who subsequently
became his brother-in-law—in grouse-shooting and deer-stalking on the
Athole moors. He later said that he owed much of that education of the
eye with reference to ground and distances, so useful to a military man,
to this period of his life in the Forest of Athole.
Thomas Graham married the Honourable Mary Cathcart, daughter of 9th
Baron Cathcart, who was the British Ambassador to Catherine the Great.
He was a solicitous husband. Notably, when his wife discovered on the
morning of an Edinburgh ball that she had left her jewel-box at
Balgowan, he rode the ninety miles to and from Balgowan using relays of
horses to ensure that she would have her jewelry at the ball. Her
portrait by Thomas Gainsborough was highly acclaimed when exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1777. The painting now hangs in the National
Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. His wife's health began to deteriorate
and on a trip to the South of France in June of 1792 she passed away.
Upon returning through Toulouse with his wife's coffin, a group of
French soldiers opened the coffin and molested the body. Graham had
previously sympathized with France and the revolutionary ideals, but
from that point on he detested the French and saw his military career as
a way to take revenge.
After a year in mourning, Graham joined the military at the ripe age of
forty-four! In June of 1793, acting as Aide-de-Camp to Lord Mulgrave,
Graham was amongst the troops sent to assist in the defence of Toulon,
one of the few places still holding out against the French Revolutionary
Government. It was here that Napoleon Bonaparte, then a lieutenant of
artillery, rose to prominence through his part in the siege. Graham
distinguished himself by his courage and energy, to wit: snatching up a
musket and leading an attacking column. In a general order referring to
the repulse of an attack by the French on an important fort, Mulgrave
expressed "his grateful sense of the friendly and important assistance
which he had received in many difficult moments from Mr. Graham, and to
add his tribute of praise to the general voice of the British and
Piedmontese officers of his column, who saw with so much pleasure and
applause the gallant example which Mr. Graham set to the whole column,
in the foremost point of every attack." Of particular note is that is
was here at Toulon where Graham first became acquainted with his
life-long friend, Rowland Hill, then a captain, who ultimately also
played such a pivotal role in the Peninsular War.
Following the Fall of Toulon to the French, Graham returned to
Perthshire and raised his own Regiment, the 90th, or Balgowan’s ‘Grey
Breeks’, as they were called, of which he was appointed
lieutenant-colonel in 1794, and nominated Rowland Hill major. Shortly
after he was unanimously chosen to represent the county of Perth in
Parliament. In 1795 he was stationed with his regiment at Gibraltar, but
becoming wearied of the listlessness of garrison duty, he obtained
permission to join the Austrian army on the Rhine as British
Commissioner. In this capacity he assisted Wurmser in the defence of
Mantua, when it was invested by the French under General Bonaparte. The
garrison was reduced to the greatest extremities from want of
provisions, and Colonel Graham undertook the perilous duty of conveying
intelligence to the Imperialist General Alvinzi, at Bassano, fifty miles
distant, of their desperate situation. Quitting the fortress, wearing a
cloak of the country over his uniform, on 24 December, amid rain and
sleet, he crossed the Mincio in a boat which was repeatedly stranded in
consequence of the darkness. He pursued his way on foot during the
night, wading through deep swamps, and crossing numerous watercourses
and the river Po, in constant danger of losing his way, or of being shot
by the French pickets; at daybreak he would conceal himself until the
return of night, when he would resume his journey. After surmounting
numerous hardships and perils, on January 4th he the headquarters of the
Austrian general. But on the 14th the Austrians were defeated, and
Mantua, soon after, was forced to surrender.
Colonel Graham again rejoined his regiment at Gibraltar and later took
part, under General Sir Charles Stuart, in the reduction of Minorca,
where he greatly distinguished himself. General Stuart was the father of
his namesake Sir Charles Stuart to whom this letter is addressed. He
then repaired to Sicily, and obtained the warmest acknowledgments of the
King and Queen of Naples for his effective exertions on their behalf. In
1798 he was entrusted with the charge of the operations against the
important island of Malta, which was at that time in the possession of
the French. With the local rank of brigadier-general, he had under his
command the 30th and 89th regiments. Owing to the great strength of the
place, he was obliged to resort to a blockade, and after being invested
for nearly two years, the garrison were compelled by famine to surrender
in September 1800. In the summer of 1801 Graham proceeded to Egypt,
where his regiment (the 90th) greatly distinguished itself under Sir
Ralph Abercromby. Following the French capitulation he toured Egypt and
Turkey, spending some time in Constantinople, whence he travelled on
horseback to Vienna—a journey which in later years he used to mention as
one of the most agreeable rides he had ever enjoyed. Graham then
returned to Scotland for some time to attend to his parliamentary duties
and his estates. Colonel Graham was subsequently stationed with his
regiment in Ireland and then sent to the West Indies, where he remained
for three years.
In 1808 Colonel Graham accompanied Sir John Moore as his aide-de-camp to
Sweden, and then to Spain. He served with Moore throughout the whole of
his campaign, terminating in the arduous and trying retreat to Corunna,
in which Graham’s services were especially valuable to the harassed
troops. As Sheridan said in the House of Commons, "In the hour of peril
Graham was their best adviser; in the hour of disaster Graham was their
surest consolation". When Sir John Moore received his death-wound at the
battle of Corunna, Colonel Graham was at his right hand and at once rode
away for medical assistance. Before he returned his dying general missed
him, and anxiously asked, "Are Colonel Graham and my aides-de-camp
safe?"—one of his last inquiries. Moore's body was carried to Colonel
Graham’s quarters, and Graham was one of the select company who
witnessed Moore’s burial on the rampart of the citadel of Corunna.
After his return to
England, Colonel Graham was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and
was appointed, in the summer of 1809, to command a division under Lord
Chatham, in the fatal Walcheren expedition. An attack of malaria fever,
however, compelled him to return home. On his recovery he was raised to
the rank of Lieutenant-General, and was sent to Spain, to take command
of the British and Portuguese troops in Cádiz, which was at that time
closely invested by the French. The British Government attached great
importance to the possession of Cádiz, as it was Britain's last
stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. General Graham resolved to make an
effort to raise the siege by attacking the rear of the besieging army
and, in February 1811, he sailed from Cádiz with a force of upwards of
4,000 men, accompanied by 7,000 Spanish troops, under General La Pena,
to whom, for the sake of unanimity, the chief command was conceded. But
for the indecision and failure of General la Pena to hold his ground,
the siege of Cadiz might well have been lifted. In one of the most
stirring and courageous moments of the war, the Battle of Barrosa,
General Graham took command and turned disaster into victory. Lord
Wellington, in a dispatch to General Graham, says "I beg to congratulate
you and the brave troops under your command on the signal victory which
you gained on the 5th instant. I have no doubt whatever that their
success would have had the effect of raising the siege of Cádiz, if the
Spanish troops had made any effort to assist them; and I am equally
certain, from your account of the ground, that if you had not decided
with the utmost promptitude to attack the enemy, and if your attack had
not been a most vigorous one, the whole allied army would have been
lost." [The Duke of Wellington’s Despatches,
vii. 382.]
Graham shortly after joined the army under Wellington and was appointed
second in command. In January 1812 he took part in the siege and capture
of Ciudad Rodrigo, and Wellington declared that he was much indebted to
him for the success of the enterprise. Three months later he and his
friend, now General, Hill received the Order of the Bath. A complaint in
his eyes, from which he had been suffering for some time, made it
necessary for Graham to return home at this juncture. "I cannot avoid
feeling the utmost concern," wrote Wellington to him, "that this
necessity should have become urgent at this moment, and that I should
now be deprived of your valuable assistance."
His visit to Scotland had the effect of restoring his eyesight, and, in
May 1813, he rejoined the army at Freneda, on the frontiers of Portugal,
bringing with him the insignia of the Order of the Garter to Lord
Wellington. On 22 May the British force quit Portugal and moved upon
Vittoria in three divisions. The left wing, which was commanded by Sir
Thomas Graham, had to cross three large rivers—the Douro, the Esla, and
the Ebro—and had to force positions of great strength among the passes
of the mountains, continually pressing round the right wing of the
retiring French army. General Graham took a prominent part in the battle
of Vittoria and, by carrying the villages of Gamarra and Abecherco at
the point of the bayonet, he intercepted the retreat of the enemy by the
high road to Bayonne, and compelled them to turn to that leading to
Pamplona.
He was shortly after directed to conduct the siege of the strong
fortress of St. Sebastian. The first assault, which took place on 25
July, was repulsed with heavy loss, and the siege had in consequence to
be raised for a time. It was renewed, however, after the defeat of Soult
in the battles of the Pyrenees, and a second attempt to carry the
fortress by storm was made on 31 August. The breach was found to present
almost insuperable obstacles, and the storming party strove in vain to
effect a lodgment. In this almost desperate state of the attack, General
Graham ordered a heavy fire of artillery to be directed against the
curtain wall, passing only a few feet over the heads of the British
troops in the breach. This novel expedient was completely successful.
Taking advantage of an explosion on the rampart caused by the fire of
the guns, which created confusion among the enemy, the assailants gained
a footing on the wall, and after a bloody struggle, which lasted two
hours, forced their way into the town. On 9 September Governor Rey
surrendered the citadel.
At the passage of the Bidassoa, which separates France and Spain,
General Graham commanded the left wing of the British army, and, after
an obstinate conflict, succeeded in establishing his victorious troops
on French territory. But the return of the complaint in his eyes,
and the general state of his health, obliged him to resign his command
and return home. In return for his eminent services, he now received, a
third time, the thanks of Parliament, and the freedom of the cities of
London and Edinburgh was conferred upon him. His health was so far
recovered that early in 1814 he was able to take the command of the
British forces in Holland, and directed the unsuccessful attempt, on 8
March, to carry the strong fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom by a night attack.
On 3 May 1814, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron
Lynedoch of Balgowan; but, in keeping with his disinterested and
high-minded character, he declined the grant of £2,000 a year, to
himself and to his heirs, which was voted as usual to accompany the
title. Other honours, both British and foreign, were heaped upon him. He
was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St.
George, of the Spanish Order of St. Ferdinand, and of the Portuguese
Order of the Tower and Sword. He was raised to the full rank of general
in 1821, was nominated colonel of the 14th Foot in 1826, which in 1834
he exchanged for that of the Royals. He was elected Rector of the
University of Glasgow in 1813, and in 1829 was appointed Governor of
Dumbarton Castle. He was noted for his vigor in his old age traveling
frequently, visiting Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, and
Russia. In 1841, aged 94, he travelled through France to Genoa and Rome.
His riding-horses were sent on to Rome, and he rode frequently in the
Campagna. He died at his London home in Stratton Street on 18 December
1843, aged 96, after a very short illness: he rose and dressed himself
on the day of his death. Taylor described Graham as "tall,
square-shouldered, and erect, his limbs sinewy and remarkably strong.
His complexion was dark, with full eyebrows, firm-set lips, and an open,
benevolent air. His manners and address were frank, simple, and
polished.
A remarkable and heroic career and life.
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