De Lacy Evans

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Lt. Gene. De Lacy Evans, 1855, photograph by Roger Fenton

Sir George De Lacy Evans GCB (* 1787 in Moig , Ireland , † January 9, 1870 in London ) was a British general and politician .

Life

Evans began his military career in 1806 in the service of the British East India Company , where he took part in the conquest of Mauritius and the fight against the Pindehris . In 1812 he joined a regiment of dragoons as a lieutenant and fought in Spain under Wellington . As an officer in the General Staff , he distinguished himself during the fighting in North America from 1813 to 1814 and then took part in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 . He was then promoted to lieutenant .

In 1818 Evans turned to politics after being exempted from military service. He turned to the radicals and was elected to parliament in 1831 and 1833 .

He also gained a certain fame in the run-up to the Crimean War when he attracted attention with Russophobic speculations about the outcome of the Russo-Turkish war. In several pamphlets he described Russian policy as aggressive and expansionist and, without having the slightest evidence, stirred up the already anti-Russian mood among the British population.

In 1835 Evans took command of the legion campaigned against Don Carlos in Great Britain with the rank of major general in the Spanish army. He won at San Sebastián , before Passages , on the heights of Amezagaña, but was beaten at Oriamendi . He concluded the campaign in June 1837 with the storming of the city of Irun .

He returned to England and was re-elected MP and eventually appointed British Colonel . In 1846 he voted for the abolition of general grain tariffs , was re-elected to represent Westminster in parliament in 1847 and has since worked for the goals of the Liberal Party.

In June 1854 Evans was promoted to lieutenant general and then commanded the 2nd division in the Crimean War . He fought in the Battle of the Alma and the Battle of Balaklava . Evans was wounded at the Alma. The day after the Battle of Balaklava, the Russians attacked his division's position at Inkerman , but were driven back by heavy artillery fire. The fights went down in history as Little Inkerman . The Russians lost 270 men, the British 100. Evans fell from his horse and had to hand over command of the division to Brigadier General Pennefather , who also led the division in the "real" battle of Inkerman . Evans returned to England early in 1855 due to illness.

Sir George De Lacy Evans retired from public life in 1865 and died in London in 1870.

literature

  • Edward M. Spiers: Radical General: Sir George de Lacy Evans, 1787-1870 . Manchester University Press, Manchester 1983, ISBN 0-7190-0929-4 .
  • Evans, Sir George de Lacy . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 10 : Evangelical Church - Francis Joseph I . London 1910, p. 2 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Orlando Figes: Crimean War . Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8270-1258-6 , pp. 94 .
personal data
SURNAME Evans, De Lacy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Evans, George De Lacy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH Moig , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1870
Place of death London