Major General Sir Granby Thomas Calcraft (1770–1820) was a British soldier and politician. He was a cavalry officer, and commanded the 3rd Dragoon Guards and the Heavy Brigade in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

. He was MP for Wareham in the years 1807–1808.

Early life

He was the younger son of

John Calcraft John Calcraft the Elder (1726 – 23 August 1772), of Rempstone in Dorset and Ingress in Kent, was an English army agent and politician. Business career The son of an attorney who was Town Clerk of Grantham, Calcraft set out on a career as an ...

of Rempston Hall in the

Isle of Purbeck The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the n ...

, and brother of John Calcraft the younger (1765–1831). Like his brother, he was illegitimate, the son of the actress Elizabeth Bride.''History of Parliament Online''
''Calcraft, Sir Granby Thomas (?1767–1820).''
/ref> Calcraft entered the army as a cornet in the 15th Light Dragoons in March 1788, and was promoted lieutenant in 1793; in that year his regiment was ordered to join the force under the

Duke of York and Albany Duke of York and Albany was a title of nobility in the Peerage of Great Britain. The title was created three times during the 18th century and was usually given to the second son of British monarchs. The predecessor titles in the English and Sc ...

in Flanders. With it he served at the

Battle of Famars The Battle of Famars was fought on 23 May 1793 during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. An Allied Austrian, Hanoverian, and British army under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld defeated the French Army of the North le ...

, the siege of Valenciennes, and the

Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies In the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies, fought on 24 April 1794, a small Anglo-Austrian cavalry force routed a vastly more numerous French division during the Flanders Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars. Villers-en-Cauchies is 15 km ...

, where a small force of the 15th Light Dragoons and Austrian hussars defeated a French corps. All the eight officers of the 15th present there were knighted, and received the

Order of Maria Theresa The Military Order of Maria Theresa (german: Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden; hu, Katonai Mária Terézia-rend; cs, Vojenský řád Marie Terezie; pl, Wojskowy Order Marii Teresy; sl, Vojaški red Marije Terezije; hr, Vojni Red Marije Te ...

from

Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor , house =Habsburg-Lorraine , father = Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor , mother = Maria Theresa of Hungary and Bohemia , religion =Roman Catholicism , succession1 =Grand Duke of Tuscany , reign1 =18 A ...

. In the same month, April 1794, Calcraft was promoted captain, and his regiment was frequently engaged throughout the disastrous retreat of the following winter. In 1799 Calcraft accompanied Henry William Paget, who commanded the cavalry brigade in the

Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) was a military campaign from 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and ...

, as aide-de-camp; he was wounded at the Battle of Alkmaar on 1 October, and was for his services promoted major into the

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 ...

in December 1799. In the following year he exchanged into the 3rd Dragoon Guards, of which he became lieutenant-colonel on 25 December 1800, and he commanded the regiment until his promotion to the rank of major-general in 1813.

Peninsular War

In 1807 Calcraft was elected Member of Parliament for Wareham, but resigned his seat at the close of 1808 on his regiment being ordered for service in the Iberian Peninsula. The 3rd Dragoon Guards were brigaded with the 4th Dragoons under the command of Henry Fane, as the

Heavy Brigade A heavy brigade is a formation made up from 'Heavy' Cavalry; i.e. Dragoon Guards and Dragoons. The Heavy Brigade was a British heavy cavalry unit commanded by General Sir James York Scarlett at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. The Br ...

, which was engaged in the

Battle of Talavera The Battle of Talavera (27–28 July 1809) was fought just outside the town of Talavera de la Reina, Spain some southwest of Madrid, during the Peninsular War. At Talavera, a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley combined with a Spanish a ...

. General Fane fell ill, and Calcraft assumed the command of the Brigade, which he held until the arrival of George de Grey in May 1810. The Brigade was frequently engaged during the retreat to

Torres Vedras Torres Vedras () is a municipality in the Portuguese district of Lisbon, approximately north of the capital Lisbon in the Oeste region, in the Centro of Portugal. The population was 83,075, in an area of . History In 1148, Afonso I took th ...

, and again in the pursuit of General

André Masséna André Masséna, Prince of Essling, Duke of Rivoli (born Andrea Massena; 6 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.Donald D. Horward, ed., trans, annotated, The Fre ...

in March 1811. After the combat of Foz d'Aronce, the Heavy Brigade served on the left bank of the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...

under

Marshal Beresford General (British Army), General William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, 1st Marquis of Campo Maior, (; 2 October 1768 – 8 January 1854) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and politician. A general in the British Army and ...

. Calcraft, who had been promoted colonel for his services on 25 July 1810, was engaged at the head of his regiment at the

Battle of Campo Maior In the Battle of Campo Maior, or Campo Mayor (an older spelling most often used in English language accounts), on 25 March 1811, Brigadier General Robert Ballard Long with a force of Anglo-Portuguese cavalry, the advance-guard of the army comm ...

, at the

Battle of Albuera The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was a battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about south ...

, and in

William Lumley General Sir William Lumley, (28 August 1769 – 15 December 1850) was a British Army officer and courtier during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The son of the Earl of Scarborough, Lumley enjoyed a rapid rise through the ra ...

's charge at Los Santos on 16 April 1811. In January 1812 the Heavy Brigade, which was again temporarily under the command of Calcraft, assisted in covering the

siege of Ciudad Rodrigo Sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo are a series of sieges of the Spanish town Ciudad Rodrigo. Specific sieges are: * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1370) * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1707) * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1810) * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) ...

, and when Wellington formed the Siege of Badajoz, it was left with General Graham's division to watch Auguste Marmont. After the

Battle of Salamanca The Battle of Salamanca (in French and Spanish known as the Battle of Arapiles) on 22July 1812 was a battle in which an Anglo-Portuguese army under the Earl of Wellington defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles, so ...

the cavalry division was in the action at Llera on 11 June 1812, when General

Charles Lallemand Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

's cavalry was cut to pieces, and Calcraft was mentioned in General Slade's report. The Brigade was then engaged in covering

Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...

's retreat from Madrid, and in December 1812 Calcraft was made a knight of the Portuguese

Order of the Tower and Sword The Ancient and Most Noble Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of the Valour, Loyalty and Merit ( pt, Antiga e Muito Nobre Ordem Militar da Torre e Espada, do Valor, Lealdade e Mérito), before 1910 Royal Military Order of the Tower an ...

for his services. On 4 June 1813 he was promoted major-general, and left the Peninsula theatre.

Later life

The ministry disliked Calcraft's opinions, and his brother attacked it for "jobbery". In 1813 he was appointed to the command of a brigade in England, and in 1814 received a gold medal for the battle of Talavera. In 1814 he gave up his staff appointment, and lived in retirement, until his death on 20 August 1820.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Calcraft, Granby Thomas 1770 births 1820 deaths 15th The King's Hussars officers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies 3rd Dragoon Guards officers British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars British Army major generals British Army personnel of the Peninsular War Recipients of the Army Gold Medal UK MPs 1807–1812