John Cradock, 1st Baron Howden

General The Right Honourable
The Lord Howden
GCB
Governor of the Cape Colony
In office
1811–1814
Monarch George III
Preceded by The Earl of Caledon
Succeeded by Lord Charles Somerset
Personal details
Born 11 August 1759
Died 26 July 1839 (aged 79)
Awards Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Rank General
Commands Madras Army
Battles/wars Irish Rebellion

General John Francis Cradock, 1st Baron Howden GCB (11 August 1759  26 July 1839) was a British peer, politician and soldier.

Life

He was son of John Cradock, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.[1] In 1775 he was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge.[2]

In 1777, he was appointed a Cornet in the 4th Regiment of Horse, which in 1779 he exchanged to become an Ensign in the Coldstream Guards, and in 1781 he was promoted a Lieutenant with the rank of Captain. In 1785 he purchased a commission as a Major in the 12th Dragoons, exchanging this in 1786 for a post in the 13th Foot, where he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in 1789.

He commanded the 13th in the West Indies in 1790, and served a second time in the West Indies commanding a battalion of grenadiers in 1793, where he was wounded at the reduction of Martinique and appointed the aide-de-camp of Sir Charles Grey, receiving the thanks of Parliament for his services.

In 1795 he was appointed Colonel of the 127th Foot, and placed on half-pay when that regiment was reduced in 1797. He was appointed Major-General in 1798, and served in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 as Quartermaster-General in Ireland, seeing action the Battle of Vinegar Hill. He accompanied Cornwallis in his campaign against the French forces landed in Ireland, and was severely wounded at the Battle of Ballinamuck.

Cradock entered the Irish House of Commons for Clogher in 1785. In 1790, he stood as Member of Parliament for Castlebar, a seat he held until 1798. He then represented Midleton from 1799 to 1800 and subsequently Thomastown to the Act of Union in 1801. In the year before, he was appointed to command the second battalion of the 54th Foot, and again placed on half-pay when that battalion was reduced in 1802. In 1803 he was appointed to the 71st Foot, and from there moved to the command of the 23rd Light Infantry in January 1809.

In 1801 he was on the staff in the Mediterranean under Sir Ralph Abercromby, seeing action several times and serving as second-in-command of a division in the field. After the surrender of Cairo and Alexandria, at which he was present, he was despatched with a force to occupy Corsica and Naples, but was recalled en route after the Peace of Amiens was signed.

He was then appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army; after the departure of Lord Lake, he commanded the whole of the forces in the Iberian Peninsula for almost a year. In 1808 he was appointed to command the forces in Portugal, handing over command to Arthur Wellesley on 22 April 1809,[3] and briefly serving as the Governor of Gibraltar.

In 1811 he was appointed Governor of the Cape Colony and commander of the forces on that station, resigning in 1814 and being succeeded by Lord Charles Somerset. He was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Howden in 1819, and to the Peerage of the United Kingdom under the same title in 1831.

The town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, is named after him.

References

Notes

  1. s:Cradock, John (DNB00)
  2. "Cradock, [John] Francis (CRDK775JF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. Chartrand, Rene (2012). Oldest Allies - Alcantara 1809. Osprey Publishing. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-78096-895-7.
Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by
Sackville Hamilton
Thomas St George
Member of Parliament for Clogher
1785–1790
With: Sackville Hamilton
Succeeded by
Sackville Hamilton
Richard Townsend Herbert
Preceded by
James Browne
Thomas Warren
Member of Parliament for Castlebar
1790–1797
With: Edward FitzGerald
Succeeded by
Thomas Lindsay
Denis Browne
Preceded by
Benjamin Blake Woodward
Richard Hardinge
Member of Parliament for Midleton
1799–1800
With: Benjamin Blake Woodward
Succeeded by
Benjamin Blake Woodward
Hon. Richard Annesley
Preceded by
Hon. Charles William Stewart
William Gardiner
Member of Parliament for Thomastown
1800 – 1801
With: William Gardiner
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Military offices
Preceded by
James Stuart
C-in-C, Madras Army
18041807
Succeeded by
Hay McDowall
Government offices
Preceded by
Sir Hew Dalrymple
Governor of Gibraltar
(acting)

1809
Succeeded by
Colin Campbell
Preceded by
Henry George Grey, acting
Governor of the Cape Colony
1811–1814
Succeeded by
Lord Charles Somerset
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