Sir John Milley Doyle KCB (1781 – 9 August 1856) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

soldier who fought 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 ...

and in the War of the Two Brothers. He was briefly a Whig

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 of ...

for

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...

Early life

The second son of Nicholas Milley Doyle,

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

Rector of

Newcastle, County Tipperary Newcastle () is a village in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Located close to the border with County Waterford, it is in the barony of Iffa and Offa West. The River Suir runs past the village. Newcastle is located 17 kilometres fr ...

, and the grandson of Charles Doyle of Bramblestown,

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

, Doyle was a nephew of General Sir John Doyle and General Welbore Ellis Doyle (1758–1797),

Military Governor of British Ceylon The governor of Ceylon was the representative in Ceylon of the British Crown from 1795 to 1948. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Ceylon. The governor was the ...

, and a cousin of Lieutenant-General Sir Charles William Doyle. On 31 May 1794, aged thirteen, he was commissioned as an ensign into the newly raised 107th Regiment of Foot.Henry Morse Stephens, Doyle, John Milley from

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...

Doyle was a brother of the campaigner for women's rights Anna Wheeler.

Career

On 21 June 1794 Doyle was promoted Lieutenant into the newly raised 108th Regiment of Foot, the

Earl of Granard Earl of Granard is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1684 for Arthur Forbes, 1st Viscount Granard. He was a lieutenant-general in the army and served as Marshal of the Army in Ireland after the Restoration and was later Lord ...

's.108th Regiment of Foot
at regiments.org, accessed 11 March 2014 He saw active service in the suppression of the

Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influence ...

. The next year he went to

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

as aide-de-camp to his uncle, then Brigadier-General John Doyle. He remained with the older Doyle throughout the British expedition to Egypt and was at the

Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro In the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro (3–5 May 1811), the British–Portuguese Army under Wellington checked an attempt by the French Army of Portugal under Marshal André Masséna to relieve the besieged city of Almeida. A bloody stalema ...

and the storming of

Ciudad Rodrigo Ciudad Rodrigo () is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population in 2016 of 12,896. It is also the seat of a judicial district. The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky rise on the right bank ...

. On 26 September 1811 Doyle was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the British Army. On 1 January 1812 he transferred as a full colonel to the 19th Portuguese Infantry Regiment, part of Le Cor's Portuguese brigade, attached to Dalhousie's division of the

Anglo-Portuguese Army The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and Portugal, Portuguese army that participated in the Peninsular War, under the command of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesl ...

, commanding this regiment 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 leading to ...

and the

Battle of the Pyrenees The Battle of the Pyrenees was a large-scale offensive (the author David Chandler recognises the 'battle' as an offensive) launched on 25 July 1813 by Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult from the Pyrénées region on Emperor Napoleon’s ord ...

. In October 1812 he was made a

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

of the

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 ...

. In the winter of 1813 Dalhousie went home to England on leave, and with General Le Cor taking command of the 7th Division, Doyle succeeded Le Cor at the head of the Portuguese 6th Brigade. He led it at the

Battle of Nivelle The Battle of Nivelle (10 November 1813) took place in front of the river Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War (1808–1814). After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops (20,0 ...

and at Orthes and then in the march on

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. At the end of the war with the defeat of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, Doyle left the Anglo-Portuguese Army, was made a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

, and was appointed as inspecting officer of

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

. Still in contact with the Portuguese, in June 1823 he chartered a steamer at his own expense and used it to take despatches for

Dom Pedro Dom Pedro (''Lord Peter'') is the traditional Portuguese appellation of several kings of Portugal: * Peter I of Portugal * Peter II of Portugal * Peter III of Portugal * Pedro IV of Portugal * Pedro V of Portugal and of the two 19th-century Emperors ...

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

. He was arrested by Dom Miguel, imprisoned for months in Lisbon, and not released until after the British minister, Sir Frederick Lamb, took up his case. In 1831 Doyle was elected as one of the Members of Parliament for

and retained the seat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

until 1832. However, he went on helping Dom Pedro with money and served as major-general and aide-de-camp to Pedro in the

Siege of Porto The siege of Porto is considered the period between July 1832 and August 1833 in which the troops of Dom Pedro remained besieged by the forces of Dom Miguel I of Portugal. The resistance of the city of Porto and the troops of Dom Pedro made t ...

of 1832. When the

Liberal Wars The Liberal Wars (), also known as the Portuguese Civil War (), the War of the Two Brothers () or Miguelite War (), was a war between liberal constitutionalists and conservative absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 18 ...

ended, Doyle was persuaded to resign his commission in return for being paid for his past services and being refunded the money of his own he had laid out, but the Portuguese never paid him. By petitions, Doyle succeeded in getting a mixed commission appointed to deal with the debts owed to the British and Irish officers, but this subsequently paid out every one of those officers except himself. For many years he pursued legal actions to get what he was owed, but never succeeded. Finally giving up, in July 1853 he accepted an appointment as a

Military Knight of Windsor The Military Knights of Windsor, originally the Alms Knights and informally the Poor Knights, are retired military officers who receive a pension and accommodation at Windsor Castle, and who provide support for the Order of the Garter and for the ...

and as a

sergeant-at-arms A serjeant-at-arms, or sergeant-at-arms, is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin ''serviens'', which means "servant". Historically, s ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. Doyle died at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

on 9 August 1856 and was buried with military honours near the south side of

St George's Chapel St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Doyle, John Milley 1781 births 1856 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Military Knights of Windsor Politicians from County Tipperary Portuguese generals Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Carlow constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1831–1832 British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars People from Newcastle, County Tipperary Military personnel from County Tipperary