This is a list of general officers of the British Armed Forces who were killed or died while on active service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. This comprises the period of 1793–1815, and includes British general officers who were serving in the British Army or attached to the allied Portuguese Army. Officers of the rank of colonel are included if they were acting in the position of a general officer, that being a brigade or larger, at the time of their death, despite them not themselves being general officers. Officers are also included if they had recently left a command at the time of their death, and their active service was the cause of it.

Background The death and injury rate of senior officers fighting in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was unusually high. General officers of the period regularly demonstrated their courage and served to the forefront in battles, placing themselves in positions of high jeopardy. Sanitary and living conditions on military campaigns in the period were also poor, leading to a number of general officers succumbing to illness and disease while on service.

The historian Rory Muir contrasts this style of service for British general officers with that of their successors fighting in the First World War, saying that the added risks officers of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars put themselves in meant that their troops "never felt the alienation from their senior officers which developed during the First World War". The highest rate of death among general officers occurred during the Peninsular War, where fifteen per cent who served were killed, having a sixty per cent higher chance of dying than their junior officers.

Generals ImageNameBranchCause of deathLocationCommandReferences William Grinfield British Army 19 October 1803 Yellow fever Barbados, West Indies Windward and Leeward Islands William Villettes British Army 13 July 1808 Yellow fever Jamaica, West Indies Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica

Lieutenant-Generals ImageNameBranchCause of deathLocationCommandReferences Sir John Vaughan British Army 30 June 1795 Bowel complaint, possibly poison Martinique, West Indies Windward Islands Sir Ralph Abercromby British Army 28 March 1801 Hostile fire (small arms) Alexandria, Egypt Egypt Army Sir William Myers British Army 29 July 1805 Illness Barbados, West Indies Windward and Leeward Islands Sir John Moore British Army 16 January 1809 Hostile fire (cannonball) Coruña, Spain Coruña Army Hay MacDowall British Army 16 March 1809 Lost at sea Lady Jane Dundas, near the Cape of Good Hope Madras Army Alexander Mackenzie Fraser British Army 13 September 1809 Illness Britain (illness caught on active service) 4th Division, Walcheren campaign Sir Thomas Picton British Army 18 June 1815 Hostile fire (small arms) Waterloo, Belgium 5th Division

Major-Generals ImageNameBranchCause of deathLocationCommandReferences John Mansel British Army 26 April 1794 Hostile fire (small arms) Beaumont, France 2nd Cavalry Brigade, Flanders campaign Thomas Dundas British Army 3 June 1794 Yellow fever Basseterre, Guadeloupe Governor of Guadeloupe, West Indies campaign Alexander Stewart British Army 16 December 1794 Illness Britain (illness caught on active service) 1st Brigade, Flanders campaign Welbore Ellis Doyle British Army 2 January 1798 Illness Colombo, Ceylon Governor of Ceylon William Crosbie British Army 16 June 1798 Suicide Portsmouth, Britain Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth John Knox British Army October 1800 Lost at sea HMS Babet, off Martinique Governor of Jamaica William Clephane British Army 4 November 1803 Illness Grenada, West Indies Lieutenant-Governor of Grenada Charles Barnett British Army 10 October 1804 Yellow fever Gibraltar Second-in-command, Gibraltar John Fraser British Army 24 November 1804 Hostile fire (cannonball) Deeg, India Patrick Wauchope British Army 31 March 1807 Hostile fire (small arms) Rosetta, Egypt Second-in-command, Alexandria expedition Charles Baillie British Army 16 March 1809 Lost at sea Lady Jane Dundas, near the Cape of Good Hope John Randoll Mackenzie British Army 28 July 1809 Hostile fire (small arms) Talavera, Spain 3rd Division Coote Manningham British Army 26 August 1809 Fatigue Britain (fatigue caused on active service) 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, Coruña campaign Nathaniel Massey, 2nd Baron Clarina British Army 26 January 1810 Fever Barbados, West Indies Lieutenant-Governor of Barbados Richard Stewart British Army 19 October 1810 Fell off balcony while delirious with eye infection Lisbon, Portugal Brigade, 2nd Division Daniel Hoghton British Army 16 May 1811 Hostile fire (small arms) Albuera, Spain Brigade, 2nd Division (had replaced Stewart) John Vesey British Army 2 December 1811 Fever Messina, Sicily Henry MacKinnon British Army 19 January 1812 Hostile fire (magazine explosion) Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain Brigade, 3rd Division Robert Craufurd British Army 24 January 1812 Hostile fire (small arms) Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain Light Division Barnard Foord Bowes British Army 23 June 1812 Hostile fire (small arms) Salamanca, Spain Brigade, 6th Division John Le Marchant British Army 22 July 1812 Hostile fire (small arms) Salamanca, Spain Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division William Wheatley British Army 1 September 1812 Typhus San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain Brigade, 1st Division Richard Hulse British Army 7 September 1812 Typhus Arévalo, Spain 5th Division George Harcourt British Army 20 September 1812 Fever St Croix, Caribbean Governor of St Croix Andrew Ross British Army 26 September 1812 Fever Cartagena, Spain Cartagena garrison Sir Isaac Brock British Army 13 October 1812 Hostile fire (small arms) Queenston, Upper Canada Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Sir William Erskine British Army 13 February 1813 Suicide by jumping out of a window Lisbon, Portugal 2nd Cavalry Division William Frederick Spry Portuguese Army 16 January 1814 Illness Southampton, Britain (illness caught on active service) 3rd Portuguese Brigade, 5th Division Eberhardt Otto George von Bock British Army 21 January 1814 Drowned At sea, off Pleubian, France Heavy Dragoon Brigade, King's German Legion John Byne Skerrett British Army 10 March 1814 Hostile fire (small arms) Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands Brigade, Bergen op Zoom Andrew Hay British Army 14 April 1814 Hostile fire Bayonne, France Brigade, 1st Division Robert Ross British Army 12 September 1814 Hostile fire (small arms) North Point, United States Brigade, United States Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie British Army 31 October 1814 Hostile fire (small arms) Kalunga, India Meerut Division, Bengal Army Sir Samuel Gibbs British Army 8 January 1815 Hostile fire New Orleans, United States Second-in-command, New Orleans expedition Sir Edward Pakenham British Army 8 January 1815 Hostile fire (small arms) New Orleans, United States New Orleans expedition William Molesworth, 6th Viscount Molesworth British Army 30 May 1815 Drowned Arniston, off the Cape of Good Hope Commandant of Galle Sir William Ponsonby British Army 18 June 1815 Hostile fire (small arms) Waterloo, Belgium 2nd Cavalry Brigade, Cavalry Corps

Brigadier-Generals ImageNameBranchCause of deathLocationCommandReferences Richard Symes British Army 19 July 1794 Hostile fire (small arms) Saint Kitts, West Indies Brigade, Invasion of Guadeloupe, West Indies campaign Colin Lindsay British Army 22 March 1795 Suicide by shooting Grenada, West Indies Grenada, Fédon's rebellion Stephens Howe British Army 20 July 1796 Yellow fever Port Royal, Jamaica Alexander Buchanan British Army December 1801 Fell out of a window Saint Vincent, West Indies Andrew Dunlop British Army 21 August 1804 Fever Antigua, West Indies John Henry Yorke British Army 1 November 1805 Drowned At sea, off Brazil Royal Artillery, Cape of Good Hope expedition Crofton Vandeleur British Army 30 October 1806 Fever Antigua, West Indies Robert Anstruther British Army 14 January 1809 Pneumonia Coruña, Spain 1st Brigade, Reserve Division, Coruña campaign Joseph French British Army 26 July 1809 Fatigue Jamaica, West Indies Second-in-command, Santo Domingo campaign British Army 28 July 1809 Hostile fire (grapeshot) Talavera, Spain 3rd Brigade, 1st Division Neil Talbot Portuguese Army 11 July 1810 Hostile fire Barquilla, Spain Portuguese cavalry James Catlin Craufurd British Army 25 September 1810 Malaria Abrantes, Portugal Brigade, 2nd Division Robert Nicholson British Army 13 October 1810 Yellow fever Antigua, West Indies Governor of Antigua William Campbell Portuguese Army 2 January 1811 Illness Trocifal, Lines of Torres Vedras, Portugal 5th Portuguese Brigade Charles Millar Portuguese Army February 1811 Illness Portugal Portuguese Militia George Drummond British Army 8 September 1811 Trench mouth Fuenteguinaldo, Spain 2nd Brigade, Light Division Francis Colman Portuguese Army 12 December 1811 Fever Lisbon, Portugal 6th Portuguese Brigade, 7th Division Richard Collins Portuguese Army 17 February 1813 Exhaustion Gouveia, Portugal 6th Portuguese Brigade, 7th Division William Harvey Portuguese Army 10 June 1813 Illness At sea, en route to Britain 9th Portuguese Brigade, 4th Division Arthur Gore British Army 8/9 March 1814 Hostile fire Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands Brigade, Bergen op Zoom

Colonels ImageNameBranchCause of deathLocationCommandReferences John Campbell British Army 16 February 1794 Hostile fire Martinique, West Indies Grenadier Brigade, Battle of Martinique Thomas Vandeleur British Army 1 November 1803 Hostile fire Alwar, India 1st Brigade, Laswari James Wynch British Army 6 January 1811 Dysentery Lisbon, Portugal 2nd Brigade, Light Division George Wilson British Army 5 January 1813 Fever Moraleja, Spain Brigade, 2nd Division Henry Cadogan British Army 21 June 1813 Hostile fire Vitoria, Spain 1st Brigade, 2nd Division British Army 21 June 1815 Hostile fire Waterloo, Belgium 1st Brigade, King's German Legion, 2nd Division

Notes and citations Notes

Citations

References