General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

William Hervey (13 May 1732 – 15 January 1815) was a

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 ...

officer and, briefly, a politician.

Life

Hervey was the son of Lord John Hervey and Mary Lepel. He was the younger brother of Augustus John Hervey (later the 3rd Earl of Bristol), and he was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

. He joined the

in 1755 with the rank of lieutenant and he was posted to North America. He was there when the French were beaten at the

Battle of Fort Niagara The Battle of Fort Niagara was a siege late in the French and Indian War, the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. The British siege of Fort Niagara in July 1759 was part of a campaign to remove French control of the Great Lakes and Oh ...

and Montreal. He was in Canada until 1763.General, The Hon. William Hervey (1732-1815)
National Trust. Retrieved 7 June 2014. He became a general in 1798. While in America, he was elected ''in absentia'' at a by-election in 1763 as a

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 ...

(MP) for

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

. He is not recorded as ever having spoken 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. ...

and appears to have not have enjoyed his time there. He did not stand in the 1768 general election. There is a painting of him that is dated to 1766 that is attributed to

Johann Zoffany Johan Joseph Zoffany (born Johannes Josephus Zaufallij; 13 March 1733 – 11 November 1810) was a German neoclassical painter who was active mainly in England, Italy and India. His works appear in many prominent British collections, includin ...

.General The Honourable William Hervey (1732–1815)
Art UK. Retrieved 7 June 2014. In September 1772, he was in Florence with his uncle, the Honourable

Felton Hervey Felton Hervey (12 February 1712 – 16 August 1773) was an aristocratic English politician from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and a member of the British royal household. He took his son and daughter on a grand tour of Italy where he met Johann ...

, and two of his children. His uncle was also being painted by Zoffany.The Hon Felton Hervey by John Faynam
National Trust. Retrieved 7 June 2014. Hervey did not stand for parliament in 1768 although he did attempt to gain a seat in 1775 and 1780 in Bury St. Edmunds. His mother reported that he was a man with few pretensions and he would be as pleased to walk and eat plainly with water as he was to travel by coach and consume fine meats and wine. His diaries reveal him to be a keen traveller and a generous philanthropist. He gave his money to help the poor and debtors and to support schools. An 1803 diary entry records that he paid for locals to be inoculated using cow pox. Hervey died in 1815 and was buried at Ickworth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hervey, William 1732 births 1815 deaths British Army generals People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1761–1768