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 Robert Garrett KCB KH (1794 – 13 June 1869) was Commander of British Troops in China and Hong Kong.

Military career

Garrett was born in

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

, Kent, the son of John Garrett of Ellington House,

Isle of Thanet The Isle of Thanet () is a peninsula forming the easternmost part of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island. Archaeological remains testify to its settlement in anc ...

, and Elizabeth Gore. Educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, Garrett was commissioned into the

2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

in 1811.Robert Garrett at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> He served 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 was present 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 ...

in 1811. In 1846 he was appointed

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

of the

46th Regiment of Foot The 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1741. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1881, ...

and in 1854 was despatched to the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

where he commanded a Brigade of the 4th Division at the Siege of Sevastopol. In 1858, he was appointed Commander of British Troops in China and Hong Kong before going on to India where he was General Officer Commanding a Division in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

and then in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. He returned to England in July 1865 to take command of South-Eastern District. In retirement he lived in Pall Mall in London. He was also

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

of the

43rd Regiment of Foot The 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1741. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) to form the 1st and 2nd battalions of t ...

Family

In 1814, he married Charlotte Georgina Sophia Cavendish-Bentinck (1789–1819), daughter of

Lord Edward Bentinck Lord Edward Charles Cavendish-Bentinck (3 March 1744 – 8 October 1819), known as Lord Edward Bentinck, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1766 to 1802. Background and education Bentinck was the second son of William ...

and granddaughter of the 2nd Duke of Portland. After her death, in 1821, he married widow Louisa Davaynes, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Garrett, Robert 1794 births 1869 deaths British Army lieutenant generals Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People educated at Harrow School Queen's Royal Regiment officers 46th Regiment of Foot officers British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars British Army personnel of the Crimean War People from Ramsgate