Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir John Colquhoun Grant (177220 December 1835) was a British soldier.

Military career

Sir Colquhoun GrantIn common with a number of contemporaries, such as Sir

Richard Hussey Vivian Lieutenant General Richard Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian (28 July 177520 August 1842), known as Sir Hussey Vivian from 1815 to 1828 and Sir Hussey Vivian, Bt, from 1828 to 1841, was a British cavalry leader from the Vivian family. Early caree ...

, he made use of a distinctive middle name in place of a common first name when knighted. joined the

36th Foot The 36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1701. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the Worcestershire Regiment in 1881. It ...

as an ensign in 1793, exchanging (some years later) to the cavalry (

25th Light Dragoons The 25th Dragoons was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1941 to 1947. Previous regiments bearing the number have been: * De La Bouchetiere's Regiment of Dragoons was re-formed in 1716 as the 25th Dragoons and disbanded in 1718. * 25th ...

), with which he served at

Seringapatam Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...

, but returning to the infantry in 1802 to command the

72nd Foot The 72nd Highlanders was a British Army Highland Infantry Regiment of the Line. Raised in 1778, it was originally numbered 78th, before being redesignated the 72nd in 1786. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 78th (Highlanders) ...

, which he led for six years. In 1806, at the head of his regiment he joined Sir David Baird's expedition to the Cape of Good Hope and on 8January was wounded in action against the

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

n army at the

Battle of Blaauwberg The Battle of Blaauwberg, also known as the Battle of Cape Town, fought near Cape Town on Wednesday 8 January 1806, was a small but significant military engagement. After a British victory, peace was made under the Treaty Tree in Woodstock. ...

. On announcing the victory of the British in despatches Baird remarked:

"Your lordship will perceive the name of Lt.-Col. Grant among the wounded ; but the heroic spirit of this officer was not subdued by his misfortune, and he continued to lead his men to glory as long as an enemy was opposed to the 72nd Regt."

He exchanged to the 15th Hussars in 1808, and took part in Sir John Moore's expedition to the

Peninsular A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

, being wounded at

Sahagún Sahagún () is a town and municipality of Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León and the province of León. It is the main populated place in the Leonese part of the Tierra de Campos natural region. Sahagún contains some ...

fighting the French. He returned to Spain in January 1813, in command of a cavalry brigade, which saw action at the

Battle of Morales The Battle of Morales was fought on 2 June 1813. It was a cavalry skirmish between the Duke of Wellington's vanguard and the rear guard of the French army. It occurred near the village of Morales which is in the vicinity of Toro, Zamora in Spa ...

. He continued to serve in this capacity, with one interruption, until the end of the Peninsular campaign. Wellington was less than impressed with the performance of Grant's hussar brigade at the

Battle of Vitoria At the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813) a British, Portuguese and Spanish army under the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, eventually leadin ...

and Grant was eventually replaced in command. However, Grant's political influence meant that he soon returned to the Peninsular to take over command of the light dragoon brigade of

Robert Ballard Long Lieutenant-General Robert Ballard Long (4 April 1771 – 2 March 1825) was an officer of the British and Hanoverian Armies who despite extensive service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars never managed to achieve high comm ...

. He was appointed KCB in 1814. At Waterloo, Grant commanded the 5th Cavalry Brigade, consisting of the

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and 15th Hussars with the

13th Light Dragoons The 13th Hussars (previously the 13th Light Dragoons) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First World War but then amalgamated wi ...

attached, which was stationed in the centre of the allied position; during the battle he had five horses shot under him. Grant was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1830, and he served as a

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for the

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorate ...

Queenborough Queenborough is a town on the Isle of Sheppey in the Swale borough of Kent in South East England. Queenborough is south of Sheerness. It grew as a port near the Thames Estuary at the westward entrance to the Swale where it joins the R ...

from

1831 Events January–March * January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing '' The Liberator'', an anti- slavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts. * January 10 – Japanese department store, Takashimaya in Ky ...

until the borough was disenfranchised under the Reform Act 1832. Grant was a groom of the bedchamber to Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, later King of Hanover. He was reputed to have been the strongest man in the British Army, and was given the nickname "The Black Giant."The nickname became popular when he commanded the hussar brigade in 1813, his towering frame and swarthy looks contrasted with the appearance of his constant companion, a diminutive red-headed brigade major. The descriptive phrase "The Black Giant with his Red Dwarf" became commonplace within the brigade. He was appointed colonel of the 12th (The Prince of Wales's) Royal Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Lancers) in 1825. He transferred to the 15th (The King's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars) in 1827, succeeding the Duke of Cumberland, a post he held until his death.

Personal life

Grant died in 1835. He had married Marcia, daughter of the Reverend J. Richards, of

Long Bredy Long Bredy is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England, situated approximately west of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in the valley of the small River Bride, beneath chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. In t ...

, Dorset. Their only surviving child, Marcia, eloped with Whig politician

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as '' The Rivals'', '' The ...

in May 1835.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Colquhoun 1764 births 1835 deaths British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Tory MPs (pre-1834) Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Queenborough UK MPs 1831–1832 Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Waterloo Medal Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Knights Third Class of the Military Order of William 12th Royal Lancers officers 15th The King's Hussars officers