Fulbeck St Nicholas - Plaque 5 - Sir Henry Fane

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Sir Henry Fane (26 November 177824 March 1840) commanded brigades under

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...

during several battles during 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 ...

, and served both as a member of Parliament and Commander-in-Chief of India.

Origins

He was the eldest son of Hon. Henry Fane (d.1802), of

Fulbeck Hall Fulbeck is a small village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population (including Byards Leap) taken at the 2011 census was 513. The village is on the A607, north from Grantham and north-west from S ...

, Lincolnshire, younger son of

Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (March 1701 – 25 November 1771) was a British MP for Lyme Regis and a lord commissioner of trade. He was an ancestor of the writer George Orwell. Biography Thomas Fane was the second son of Henry Fane o ...

Military career

Fane joined the 6th Dragoon Guards as a cornet in 1792 and served as '' aide-de-camp'' to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, John Fane, before obtaining a Lieutenancy in the 55th Regiment of Foot. He was promoted to Captain-lieutenant in the 4th Dragoons in 1795; to Major the following year and to Lieutenant-colonel in 1797, subsequently serving throughout the rebellion that year. On 1January 1805, following his removal to the Lieutenant-colonency of the

1st King's Dragoon Guards The 1st King's Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment was raised by Sir John Lanier in 1685 as the 2nd Queen's Regiment of Horse, named in honour of Queen Mary, consort of King James II. It was renamed the 2nd Ki ...

, he was appointed ''aide-de-camp'' to King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

, which made him a Colonel in the army.

Peninsular War

As a brigadier general, Fane commanded a brigade in Wellesley's army at the

Battle of Vimeiro In the Battle of Vimeiro (sometimes shown as "Vimiera" or "Vimeira" in contemporary British texts) on 21 August 1808, the British under General Arthur Wellesley (who later became the Duke of Wellington) defeated the French under Major-Gene ...

in August 1808. His brigade, which included the 1/50th ''West Kents'', 5/60th ''Royal Americans'', and four companies of the 2/95th ''Rifles'', took a key part in repelling the French frontal attacks on Vimeiro village. During Sir John Moore's expedition in Spain, Fane commanded the 2nd Brigade (1/38th ''1st Staffordshire,'' 1/79th ''Cameron Highlanders,'' 1/82nd ''Prince of Wales Volunteers'' Foot) in Alexander Mackenzie Fraser's 3rd Division. The 3rd Division was present but not engaged at the

Battle of Corunna The Battle of Corunna (or ''A Coruña'', ''La Corunna'', ''La Coruña'' or ''La Corogne''), in Spain known as Battle of Elviña, took place on 16 January 1809, when a French corps under Marshal of the Empire Jean de Dieu Soult attacked a Bri ...

in January 1809. Fane missed the

Second Battle of Porto The Second Battle of Porto, also known as the Battle of the Douro or the Crossing of the Douro, was a battle in which General Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Portuguese Army defeated Marshal Soult's French troops on 12 May 1809 and took back the ...

, since his heavy cavalry brigade (3rd ''Prince of Wales'' Dragoon Guards, 4th ''Queen's Own'' Dragoons) was guarding the Portuguese frontier at

Abrantes Abrantes () is a municipality in the central Médio Tejo subregion of Portugal. The population was 39,325, in an area of . The municipality includes several parishes divided by the Tagus River, which runs through the middle of the municipalit ...

. While commanding the same brigade, he fought at 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 ...

in July 1809. On 13 May 1810, Fane transferred to command a brigade that included the 13th Light Dragoons and four Portuguese mounted regiments. He was present at the

Battle of Bussaco The Battle of Buçaco () or Bussaco, fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army. Having o ...

, while attached to

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 2nd Division. He went home ill before the end of 1810. On 24 April 1813, Fane was promoted to major general on the staff. Posted to command a brigade consisting of the 3rd Dragoon Guards and the 1st ''Royal'' Dragoons on 20 May, he fought 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 ...

in June. In that battle, his cavalry fought with Hill's Right Column, being lightly engaged. During late 1813, Wellington sent most of his cavalry to the rear since they were almost useless in the rough terrain of the Pyrenees. In January 1814, Fane transferred to lead a brigade that included the 13th and 14th Light Dragoons. There is evidence that Fane effectively commanded both his old and new brigades in the final battles in southern France. Wellington called his cavalry forward in February, his light cavalry arriving first. Fane's brigade fought at the

Battle of Orthez The Battle of Orthez (27 February 1814) saw the Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese Army under Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington attack an Imperial French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult in southern France. The outnumbered Fr ...

and was present at the Battle of Toulouse in April. For his Peninsula service, Fane was awarded the Army Gold Cross with one clasp for the battles of Vimeiro, Corunna, Talavera, Vitoria, and Orthez.

Later career

He was made a KCB in 1815 and a GCB in 1826. Fane sat as MP for

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Heri ...

in 1802–1816, MP for

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

in 1829–1830 and MP for

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

in 1830–1831. He was named Commander-in-Chief of India in 1835. He died on 24 March 1840, aged 61. His tomb in Fulbeck was designed by

Edward Hodges Baily Edward Hodges Baily (10 March 1788 – 22 May 1867; sometimes misspelled ''Bailey'') was a prolific English sculptor responsible for numerous public monuments, portrait busts, statues and exhibition pieces as well as works in silver. He carved ...

Mistress and illegitimate issue

Fane formed a "strong attachment" to Isabella Gorges, a daughter of Hamilton Gorges, and since 1791 the wife of Edward Cooke, described in his will as "of Avon" (i.e. Avon Tyrrell,

Sopley Sopley is a village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It lies on the old main road from Christchurch to Ringwood, on the east bank of the River Avon. The parish extends east as far as Thorny Hill ...

, Hampshire). From 1801 Fane and Mrs Cooke lived together as man and wife, and had six illegitimate children, of which three survived infancy: Fane OfBoyton Wiltshire

*Col. Henry Fane (1802–1836), life tenant of

, Lincolnshire, under the will of his father. Started his military career as Capt. 4th Regiment, Dragoon Guards. Three of his sons were surviving in 1880.Per will of sister Isabella Fane (d.1880) *Isabella Fane (1804–1880), spinster. Her letters from India, while acting as her father's hostess between 1835 and 1838, are described as "corrective to the notion that all Englishwomen in India were of the straight-laced memsahib type – snobbish, imperious and racially prejudiced". *Rev. Arthur Fane (1809–1872), vicar of

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-c ...

, Wiltshire 1841–1859 and later appointed rector of Fulbeck by his father. p. 445 Educated at Exeter College, Oxford. Married Lucy Bennett, daughter and heiress of John Benett MP of Pyt House, Wiltshire, and Boyton Manor, Wilts. Six children surviving in 1880. Appointed Prebendary of Salisbury. Served as domestic chaplain to his cousin the Earl of Westmorland. His grandson Major Henry Nevile Fane (1883–1947), Coldstream Guards (son of his third son Sir Edmund Douglas Veitch Fane (1837–1900) KCMG) married Hon. Harriet Trefusis (d.1958), daughter and senior co-heiress of

Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton Charles John Robert Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton (18 January 1863 – 5 July 1957) was a British peer. Trefusis was the eldest son of the 20th Baron Clinton and his wife, Harriet. Educated at Oxford he played polo with ...

(d.1957). Major Henry Fane's grandson (by his son Capt. Charles Nevile Fane) was Gerard Nevile Mark Fane, who assumed the additional surname of Trefusis following the death of his grandmother Harriet, and became 22nd

Baron Clinton Baron Clinton is a title in the Peerage of England. Created in 1298 for Sir John de Clinton, it is the seventh-oldest barony in England. Creation and early history The title was granted in 1298 to Sir John de Clinton, a knight who had served ...

in 1965, having claimed the termination of the 1957 abeyance of that title.

References

* Glover, Michael. ''The Peninsular War 1807–1814.'' London: Penguin, 2001. * Oman, Charles. ''Wellington's Army, 1809–1814.'' London: Greenhill, (1913) 1993. * * Smith, Digby. ''The Napoleonic Wars Data Book.'' London: Greenhill, 1993. * Zimmermann, Dick. "Battle of Vimeiro," Wargamer's Digest magazine, vol 10, no 12, October 1983.

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fane, Henry 1840 deaths 1778 births 1st King's Dragoon Guards officers 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards officers British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars British Army generals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 Recipients of the Army Gold Cross

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...