Lieutenant-General Richard Thomas Glyn (23 December 1831 – 21 November 1900) was a British Army officer. He joined the 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) in 1850 after his father purchased him an ensign's commission. Glyn served with the regiment in the Crimean War and rose in rank to captain before transferring to the 24th (The 2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot in 1856. He served with that regiment in the Indian Mutiny and was appointed to command it in 1872. In 1875 he accompanied the regiment's 1st Battalion on service in the Cape Colony, fighting with them in the 9th Cape Frontier War of 1877–78.
Glyn commanded No. 3 Column, including soldiers from both battalions of his regiment, during the first British invasion of Zululand in 1879. He led the attack on Sihayo's Kraal on 12 January, the first action of the war. The column afterwards encamped at Isandlwana where, on 22 January, Lord Chelmsford made the decision to divide his force. Chelmsford and Glyn led around half of their troops eastwards towards the Mangeni River where a Zulu force had attacked a British reconnaissance party. Whilst they were away the main Zulu royal army attacked and overran the camp at Isandlwana and inflicted heavy losses on the British defenders, many of whom were from Glyn's regiment. After the battle, Glyn's column withdrew from Zululand and he assumed command of the British garrison at Rorke's Drift. Though suffering from depression and a mental breakdown, he made orders to recover the missing Queen's Colour of the 1st Battalion and to bury the bodies of his soldiers. He was excluded from a court of enquiry held by Chelmsford into the defeat at Isandlwana and survived an attempt by Chelmsford's staff to blame him for the disaster.
Glyn commanded a brigade in the second invasion of Zululand that brought the war to an end with a British victory, for which he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He returned to the United Kingdom after the war to command the regimental depot at Brecon, Wales, and superintended the transformation of the 24th Regiment into the South Wales Borderers. Glyn was promoted to general rank before his retirement, after which he served in the ceremonial role of colonel of the regiment of the South Wales Borderers until his death.
Early career Glyn was born on 23 December 1831 in Meerut in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces of the Bengal Presidency of British India. He was the only son of Richard Carr Glyn, a civil officer of the East India Company, and Jane Florentia (née Creighton). Glyn's paternal great-grandfather was Sir Richard Glyn, 1st Baronet, of Ewell. Glyn was baptised in Meerut on 23 February 1832 but was raised in England where he enjoyed country pursuits such as riding and hunting.Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal: "Richard Thomas Glyn": archive N-1-32, folio: 115 He stood only in height but was strongly built.
Glyn joined the 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) as an ensign when his father purchased him a commission on 16 August 1850. Glyn received promotion to lieutenant, also by purchase, on 24 June 1853 and served with the 82nd Regiment in Ireland. He was deployed with his regiment to the Crimean War in late 1855, arriving on 2 September and being posted to the Siege of Sevastopol. Vacancies that arose in the field, such as deaths by enemy action or disease, could be filled without purchase and Glyn was promoted in this manner to the rank of captain on 7 September 1855. Glyn did not take part in combat directly but was present with his regiment at the Battle of the Great Redan on 8 September. Although the British action was unsuccessful, their allies, the French, won a victory the same day at the Battle of Malakoff that brought about the Russian withdrawal from Sevastopol. There was little more land-based combat during the war and Glyn and the 82nd Foot served only on garrison duty until the March 1856 Treaty of Paris ended the conflict. For his service in the war, he received the Crimea Medal with the Sevastopol clasp and the Ottoman Empire's Turkish Crimea Medal.
Glyn transferred to the 24th (The 2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot on 30 September 1856. That same year he married Ann Penelope Clements, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick William Clements of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment; they went on to have four daughters and two sons. Glyn's honeymoon was curtailed when he was posted to join his regiment in India in response to the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. He served with General Colin Campbell's force that relieved the Siege of Lucknow in November and took part in subsequent operations that brutally quelled the rebellion by 1858. For his actions, Glyn received the Indian Mutiny Medal. The regiment raised a second battalion in 1858 and was afterwards posted on garrison duty across the British Empire. Glyn remained with the 1st Battalion in India until March 1861, being joined by his family and spending much of the time hunting.
On its return to England the 1st Battalion was quartered in Gosport and Portsea on the south coast. Glyn was promoted to major by purchase on 23 July 1861. In September 1863 the battalion was posted to North Camp, Aldershot and it moved to Shorncliffe Army Camp in Kent in April 1864. In March 1865 the battalion moved to Curragh Camp, Ireland; between August 1865 and February 1866 it was deployed to Dublin as a precaution against Fenian attempts to free political prisoners from the jails. In August 1866 Glyn commanded a detachment posted to Derry; the battalion departed Ireland for Malta the following month.
Glyn's wife and their son Richard Oliver Couper, born in Steyning, Sussex on 27 February 1866, joined him in Malta.Birth, Marriage & Death (Parish Registers) "Richard O C Glyn", Steyning, Sussex, England. Vol 2B, p. 273. Glyn attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, also by purchase, on 13 February 1867. In Malta the battalion was quartered successively at Fort Verdala, the Floriana Lines and Fort Ricasoli. Glyn's first born son died on the island on 17 June 1867 and is buried in the Ta' Braxia Cemetery in Gwardamanġa. A second son, John Keane Carr, was born in Malta on 5 April 1868 and died there of diphtheria on 5 November 1869; he was buried in the same grave as his brother.
Glyn received command of the 24th Regiment in February 1872 and on the 13th of that month was granted the brevet rank of colonel. The battalion left Malta at the end of February for garrison duty in Gibraltar, where it was housed successively at Europa Flats, Windmill Hill and the Buena Vista Barracks. During this period Glyn spent time hunting across the border in Spain.
Cape Colony The 1st Battalion of the 24th Regiment was posted to the Cape Colony in Southern Africa in November 1875 and Glyn accompanied them; the posting gave him ample opportunity for hunting the black-backed jackal. Glyn established a formal hunt with himself as master and three of his battalion's subalterns as whips. He kept a pack of hounds which he exercised three times a week, and led expeditions lasting up to ten days at a time. Glyn and his officers also took part in hunting birds and small game animals. Glyn's family had accompanied him to the Cape, and his officers thought he was so keen on hunting (an all-male affair) because it offered an escape from his all-female household. Among his subalterns, Lieutenant Nevill Coghill, who lodged for a time with the Glyns, was a particular favourite.
American historian Donald R. Morris writing in 1965 characterised Glyn, during this period, as "a short, grouchy officer" who frequently fell out with his subordinates. British historian Adrian Greaves in 2012 described him as "steady and unflappable" but also "unimaginative and lethargic" and fortunate to have capable subordinates to see to the duties of the battalion. In 1876 Glyn led the battalion on an arduous two-month, march from Cape Town to Kimberley as the civil authorities feared a rebellion might break out in the recently established colony of Griqualand West. Upon reaching the colony, Glyn determined the swift arrival of his unit was sufficient to dissuade any potential rebels and they soon marched back to the Cape. 9th Cape Frontier War
Following the Eighth Xhosa War of 1850–53 and European settlement of British Kaffraria, the Gcaleka house of the Xhosa people were confined to a reserve between the Great Kei and Mbashe rivers. Fingoland, home of the Fengu people, former vassals of the Xhosa, was put under the protection of the Cape Colony. A drought in 1877 led to friction between the Gcaleka and the Fengu, erupting into bloodshed at a wedding feast on 3 August and starting the 9th Cape Frontier War. The Cape Colony intervened but, because of a disagreement over authority, the imperial military, of which Glyn was a part, was relegated to a defensive role. Glyn commanded the garrison at King William's Town and established a series of posts along the Great Kei River to secure the frontier. Although initially successful in defeating Xhosa attacks, the Cape Colony's expeditionary force withdrew to the British side of the frontier in mid-November after suffering severe logistical problems.
The Gcaleka convinced the Ngqika Xhosa to join them and, with the frontier threatened, the British High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Henry Bartle Frere, overrode the colonial authorities and placed the imperial army on the offensive. Glyn was granted the acting rank of brigadier-general and placed in command of the Army of the Transkei, under the overall command of Lieutenant-General Arthur Cunynghame. Few of the Cape Colony forces agreed to join the army, so it was reinforced by naval brigades and irregular mounted infantry units raised from British settlers. Following Cunynghame's orders, Glyn's troops entered the Gcaleka Reserve in three columns. The Gcaleka largely ignored the British troops and slipped across the Great Kei River to join forces with the Ngqika and threaten the British rear. Glyn's forces progressed well, defeating those Gcaleka who remained in the reserve by employing new tactics laid out in the 1877 Field Exercise and Evolution of Infantry. Rather than the traditional rigid, close order formations used by British infantry, the new manual recommended open-order skirmishing formations with individual soldiers given more freedom of movement. Despite Glyn's success, operations were suspended in early January 1878 because of the summer heat.
Glyn resumed his campaign after the worst of the heat had passed, and on 13 January led a force of almost 200 troops of his battalion, together with some mounted policemen and Fengu auxiliaries, from Centane to Nyamaga to engage a Gcaleka force planning to attack the British position. Glyn's force included two RML 7-pounder mountain guns, crewed by his bandsmen due to a lack of Royal Artillery personnel. Upon coming into range of the Gcaleka, the artillery opened fire and forced the Xhosa to retreat behind a ridgeline. Glyn ordered his forces to advance and, after a short firefight, the Gcaleka withdrew from the field, pursued by the Fengu. Subsequently Glyn established bases across the Gcaleka Reserve to allow his forces to sweep the territory and destroy the Xhosa's food supply. As Glyn had intended, this left the Xhosa leaders little choice but to commit to a decisive battle. At the 7 February Battle of Centane, a force of 5,000-6,000 Xhosa attacked a British force that Glyn deployed in open skirmish lines anchored on his entrenched artillery. The weight of fire proved sufficient to prevent the Xhosa from closing with the British and around 400 Xhosa, mainly Gcaleka, were killed for the loss of two Fengu dead and nine wounded on the British side. The battle effectively ended the Gcaleka involvement in the war.