Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Goldfinch (24 November 1781England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538–1975 – 21 November 1854) was an officer in the Royal Engineers who served during the Peninsular War of 1807 to 1814, ending his career as one of the colonels commandant of the Corps of Royal Engineers.Appointment of Colonels Commandant – The London Gazette 17 February 1854 p468 He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1815Appointment to Companion of the Order of the Bath – The London Gazette 16 September 1815 – Google Books p1880 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1852.Appointment to KCB – London Gazette 5 April 1852 p988
Harry Goldfinch was born in London, the son of Henry Goldfinch and his wife, Ann Paterson or Patterson.England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567–1970 He was educated at Tonbridge School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
He joined the army in 1796 as an officer in the Royal Engineers and served at Hanover (1805) and at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807). He served with distinction during the Peninsular War from May 1809 to April 1814Henry Goldfinch – The Napoleon Series and was present at the battles of Talavera (1809), Bussaco (1810), Vittoria (1813), Pyrenees (1813), Nive (1813), Orthez (1814) and Toulouse (1814).Lieut.-Genl. Sir Henry Goldfinch KCB on John Clarke's Brookwood Cemetery website He was captured at the Battle of Porto (1809) but managed to escape.Dr. Mark S. Thomson, Wellington's Engineers: Military Engineering on the Peninsular War 1808–1814, Pen & Sword Military (2015) – Google Books p42
Goldfinch was promoted to second lieutenant (1798), first lieutenant (1800), second captain (1805), captain (1807), brevet major (1812), brevet lieutenant-colonel (1813), lieutenant-colonel (1814), colonel (1837), major-general (1841), lieutenant-general (1851)John Philippart, The Royal Military Calendar, Or Army Service and Commission Book Volume 4, London (1820) – Google Books p495-496Death of Lt. Ge. Henry Goldfinch – The London Gazette 9 January 1855 p86 and colonel commandant (1854).John Clarke, An Introduction to Brookwood Cemetery, Necropolis Publications (1992) p10 He received the Gold Cross for Vittoria, Nive, Orthez and Toulouse and the Military General Service Medal with three clasps for Talavera, Busaco, and the Pyrenees.Goldfinch -War Services of the Officers of the Royal Engineers – Hart's Army List
With his wife, Catherine Elizabeth (née Thomas), he had two sons, Henry Robert Goldfinch Edward Walford, The County Families of the United Kingdom, Robert Hardwicke, London (1860) – Henry Robert Goldfinch – Google Books p255 and John Howard Goldfinch, as well as two daughters, Mary Louisa Goldfinch and Catherine Elizabeth Goldfinch.Marriage of Catherine Elizabeth Goldfinch – 26 February 1853 – The Spectator p19
He died at his home at 11 Upper Wimpole Street, London, on 21 November 1854, aged 73, and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery on 25 November 1854, just two weeks after the cemetery opened, being the 29th person to be buried there. His is the oldest surviving memorial anywhere within the cemetery.Lt-General Sir Henry Goldfinch on the Brookwood Cemetery website'Brookwood – the largest cemetery in Britain' – BBC News – 27 August 2010
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