Arms (Richard)HusseyVivian 1stBaronVivian Died1842

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 ...

Richard Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian (28 July 177520 August 1842), known as Sir Hussey Vivian from 1815 to 1828 and Sir Hussey Vivian, Bt, from 1828 to 1841, was a British cavalry leader from the

Vivian family Vivian may refer to: *Vivian (name), a given name and also a surname Toponyms * Vivian, Louisiana, U.S. * Vivian, South Dakota, U.S. * Vivian, West Virginia, U.S. * Vivian Island, Nunavut, Canada * Ballantrae, Ontario, a hamlet in Stouffville, ...

Early career

Vivian was the son of John Vivian (1750–1826), of

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, and his wife Betsey, daughter of the Reverend Richard Cranch, and the brother of

John Henry Vivian John Henry Vivian FRS (9 August 1785 – 10 February 1855) was a Welsh industrialist and politician of Cornish extraction. He was a member of the Vivian family. Vivian was the son of John Vivian (1750–1826), of Truro, Cornwall, and his wi ...

. He was educated at Truro Grammar School, then at Harrow and

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

, Vivian entered the army in 1793, and less than a year later became a captain in the

28th Foot The 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1694. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the Gloucestershire Regi ...

. Under

Lord Moira Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings, (9 December 175428 November 1826), styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762, Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783, The Lord Rawdon from 1783 to 1793 and The Earl of Moira b ...

he served in the campaign of 1794 in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

and the Netherlands. At the end of the expedition, the 28th bore a distinguished part in Lord Cathcart's action of

Geldermalsen Geldermalsen () is a town and former municipality in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Town of Geldermalsen The town centre of Geldermalsen contains a two-aisled Gothic church dating from the 15th century, with a Romanesque towe ...

. In 1798 Vivian was transferred to the 7th Light Dragoons (later

Hussars A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely a ...

), and in Sir

Ralph Abercromby Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby (7 October 173428 March 1801) was a British soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was appointed Governor of Trinidad, served as Commander-in-Chief, Ir ...

's division was present in the Helder campaign in Holland at the battles of

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

and Alkmaar (19 September to 6 October 1799).

Peninsular War

In 1800, he received his majority, and in 1804 he became lieutenant colonel of the 7th. In command of this regiment he sailed to join Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird at Corunna in 1808, and took part in Lord Henry Paget's cavalry fights at Sahagún and Benavente. During the retreat of Lieut-General Sir John Moore's army the 7th were constantly employed with the rearguard. Vivian was present 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 ...

, and returned with the remainder of the army to England. It was not until September 1813 that the 7th returned to the Peninsula. On 24 November, Vivian (now colonel and aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent) was appointed to command a light cavalry brigade (

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...

and

14th Light Dragoons The 14th King's Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with the 20th Hussars to form the 14th/20th King's Hussars in 1922 ...

) under

Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill, (11 August 1772 – 10 December 1842) was a British Army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars as a brigade, division and corps commander. He became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1828. ...

in Wellington's army. With this corps he served at the

Battle of the Nive The Battles of the Nive (9–13 December 1813) were fought towards the end of the Peninsular War. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish army defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army on French soil ...

(9–13 December). In January 1814, Vivian transferred to lead a light cavalry brigade in William Carr Beresford's corps. The 1,000-strong unit included the 18th Hussars and the 1st King's German Legion Hussars. Vivian took a marked part in the action of

Gave de Pau The Gave de Pau () is a river of south-western France. It takes its name from the city of Pau, through which it flows. The river is long ( including the Gaves réunis), and its source is at the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrenees mountains. The ...

and 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 ...

. On 8 April, Vivian fought a brilliant action at Croix d'Orade on the Ers River, where he was very severely wounded. In this clash, the 18th Hussars seized a key bridge intact, helping

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

to isolate the French defenders of Toulouse. At the beginning of 1815 he was appointed

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 on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

(KCB); he had been a major general for several months.

Waterloo

In April 1815, Sir Hussey Vivian was appointed to command the 6th Brigade of the

Earl of Uxbridge Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form '' jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particula ...

's Cavalry Division. Vivian's brigade included the

10th 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The re ...

and 18th Hussars as well as the 1st and 2nd Hussars King's German Legion. 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 ...

the 6th Brigade was posted on the

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 ...

's left flank. In the late afternoon, Vivian's regiments, with those of General Vandeleur's 4th Brigade, were ordered to move to support the centre of the line, which was under pressure from

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 ...

Imperial Guard An imperial guard or palace guard is a special group of troops (or a member thereof) of an empire, typically closely associated directly with the Emperor or Empress. Usually these troops embody a more elite status than other imperial forces, i ...

. After the enemy were repulsed, Vivian's hussars made the final charge of the day between

Hougoumont Château d'Hougoumont (originally Goumont) is a walled manorial compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium. The site served as one of the advanced defens ...

and

La Haye Sainte La Haye Sainte (named either after Jesus Christ's crown of thorns or a bramble hedge round a field nearby) is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road in Belgium. It has changed very little since it ...

, sweeping the Middle Guard and Line units before them before breaking upon the squares of the Old Guard, which they soon learned to avoid. This service was rewarded by the thanks of both houses of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, an award of the KCH, and the Orders of Maria Theresa and St. Vladimir from the emperors of Austria and Russia. After hostilities had ceased, Vivian remained in France as part of the Army of Occupation in command of the 2nd Brigade of Cavalry. In 1816 he was censured by army commander Lieutenant General Lord Combermere, under orders from the Duke of Wellington, for failing to report a disturbance in a French theatre caused by officers of the 18th Hussars.

Later career

Vivian sat in the House of Commons as member for

and then

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

from 1821 to 1831, after which he was made commander of the forces in Ireland and given the GCH. He was also appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland in 1831. From 1825 to 1830 he was Inspector-General of the Cavalry and in 1830 was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber, serving King William IV throughout his reign until 1837, after which he was promoted Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). In 1835 he became

Master-General of the Ordnance The Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855–1895 and 1939–1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general. The Master-General of the Ordnance was ...

(until 1841) and was sworn of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom the same year. In 1837 he was elected MP for East Cornwall, sitting until 1841. He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

in the County of Cornwall in 1827. In 1841, he was elected to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

as a Fellow in February and was raised to the peerage as Baron Vivian, of Glynn and of Truro in the County of Cornwall in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in August. A year later he died at

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

and was succeeded by his eldest son, to whom he also bequeathed his recently acquired estate at Glynn, near Bodmin.

Family

His first marriage in 1804 was to Eliza Champion, daughter of

Philip Champion de Crespigny Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738–1803) was a British lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1790. He was of Huguenot descent, the son of Philip Champion de Crespigny (1704-1765), proctor of the Admiralty cour ...

, with whom he had the following children: * Charles Crespigny Vivian, 2nd Baron Vivian (1808–1886) * Charlotte Eliza Vivian (1815–1877), who married General

Charles George James Arbuthnot General Charles George James Arbuthnot, DL (180121 October 1870) was a British general. Early life Arbuthnot was born at sea aboard the frigate '' Juno'' and raised at Woodford, Northamptonshire. His father, Charles Arbuthnot, was a prominent ...

* John Cranch Walker Vivian (1818–1879),

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politician * Jane Frances Anne Vivian (1824–1860), who married

Henry John Wentworth Hodgetts-Foley Henry John Wentworth Hodgetts-Foley of Prestwood House, then in Kingswinford parish (9 December 1828 – 23 April 1894) was a British MP. He was the son of John Hodgetts Hodgetts-Foley''Burke's Peerage 2003'', page 1448 and a descendant of Ge ...

* Georgina Agnes Augusta Vivian (1828–1835) He married secondly Letitia Webster, daughter of Rev. James Agnew Webster, and had at least one child: * Lalage Letitia Caroline Vivian (1835–1875), who married Henry Hyde Nugent Bankes A natural son, Sir Robert John Hussey Vivian (1802–1887), was brought up as one of the family. He had a distinguished military career in India.

Notes

References

* * *Glover, Michael. ''The Peninsular War 1807–1814.'' Penguin, 1974. *Oman, Charles. ''Wellington's Army, 1809–1814.'' Greenhill, (1913) 1993. *Smith, Digby. ''The Napoleonic Wars Data Book.'' Greenhill, 1998. * *

External links