Thomas Robert Swinburne of Marcus

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

DL (1794–1864) was a British military administrator serving in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. He served at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

. He was an amateur artist.

Life

He was born in March 1794 and raised at Pontop Hall, a 17th-century manor house in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. He was the eldest son of Thomas Swinburne (d.1825) and his wife, Charlotte Spearman. In June 1813 he became an ensign in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards. He was at the

Quatre Bras Quatre Bras (, French for crossroads; literally "four arms") is a hamlet in the municipality of Genappe, Wallonia, Belgium. It lies on the crossroad of the Charleroi-Brussels road (currently named N5) and the Nivelles-Namur road south of Genappe ...

and survived uninjured. He was also at the Siege of Peronne. In December 1816 he was promoted to captain and transferred to the 3rd Dragoon Guards. He became lieutenant colonel in 1838 and brevet colonel in 1851. He was major general in 1857 and lieutenant general shortly before death From 1838 he was in administrative roles, based in Edinburgh. In 1839 he was elected an Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposer was

John Gordon of Cairnbulg John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

. He also had estates at Marcus in Forfar (sometimes shown as Margus), and was made Deputy Lieutenant of

Forfar Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a p ...

. He retired to west

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and died there on 29 February 1864. He is buried with his wife in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

Family

He married twice. Firstly in 1818 to Maria Coats, daughter of Anthony Coats. Following Maria's death in 1820 (a week after giving birth to their first and only child), in 1826 he married Helen Aspinall (d.1864). His eldest son Thomas Anthony Swinburne (1820-1893) was a Captain in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Known art works

*''Pack Pony Jean'' (1815)

References

1794 births 1864 deaths British Army lieutenant generals Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Burials at the Dean Cemetery British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Grenadier Guards officers 3rd Dragoon Guards officers {{UK-army-bio-stub