George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend

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George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend

George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend , PC ( February 28, 1724 - September 14, 1807 ) was a British nobleman and officer who reached the rank of field marshal .

Early years

George Townshend was the son of Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend and his wife Audrey Ethelreda Harrison. His younger brother was Charles Townshend , who later became a prominent British politician. Townshend studied at St. John's College , Cambridge .

Military career

In 1745, George Townshend joined the 7th Queen's Own Hussars as an officer . During the Jacobite Uprising in the same year he fought in the Battle of Culloden and in the Battle of Lauffeldt during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1747 .

Townshend served as a brigadier in Quebec , Canada under General James Wolfe . After he had fallen and his deputy Robert Monckton was wounded, he took command of the British forces during the siege of the city . The city surrendered on September 18, 1759. Before that, however, he had made no secret of his disdain for Wolfe and made a drawing of him that is considered Canada's first cartoon . For this reason he was sharply criticized on his return to Great Britain, as Wolfe was considered a hero. Nevertheless, he was promoted to major general in 1761 and fought in the same year during the Seven Years' War in the battle of Vellinghausen . In 1762 he took over the command of a division of the Anglo-Portuguese army with the rank of lieutenant general , which was fighting against a Spanish invasion.

When his father died in 1764, he inherited his title of nobility as the 4th Viscount Townshend and thereby became a member of the House of Lords .

Townshend served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1767 to 1772 . 1779 began the governor of Newfoundland , Richard Edwards , the construction of a fort , named after Townshend. who held the office of Master-General of the Ordnance from 1772 to 1782 and from 1783 to 1784 and was thus responsible for the construction of fortifications. The fort also housed the government administration of Newfoundland and Labrador . Townshend was promoted to general in 1782, and on October 31, 1787, Marquess Townshend , of Raynham in the County of Norfolk , was raised. In 1796 he was made field marshal and held the office of governor of Jersey until 1806 .

Personal and family

Anne Montgomery, Townshend's second wife, painted by Joshua Reynolds

On February 2, 1773, George Townshend fought a duel with Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont , in which he seriously injured the earl with a bullet in the groin.

In May 1796 a family tragedy occurred: his son Charles Townsend , who had just been elected member of parliament, traveled to London in a carriage with his brother Frederick, a clergyman . During this trip, Frederick Townshend inexplicably killed his brother Charles with a shot in the head. He was declared insane.

George Townshend was married twice. His first marriage to Charlotte Compton, 15th Baroness Ferrers of Chartley, had eight children, five of whom reached adulthood:

Three years after the death of his first wife in 1770, Townshend married Anne Montgomery, who was Mistress of the Robes of Caroline , Princess of Wales, from 1795 to 1820 . They had six children:

  • Lord William Townshend (1778–1794)
  • Lord James Townshend (1785-1842)
  • Lady Anne Townshend († 1826)
  • Lady Charlotte Townshend (1776–1856), ⚭ George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds
  • Lady Honoria Townshend (1777-1826)
  • Lady Henrietta Townshend († 1848)

literature

  • TA Heathcote: The British Field Marshals 1736-1997 . Leo Cooper, 1999, ISBN 0-85052-696-5

Web links

Commons : George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Heathcote: The British Field Marshals 1736 ˜ 1997. p. 277.
  2. ↑ Townshend, George . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 , volume 4 : Hall – Zuingius . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1927, pp. 258 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Heathcote: The British Field Marshals 1736–1997 p. 278
  4. ↑ Terry Mosher: "Drawn and Quartered." Leader and Dreamers Commemorative Issue. Maclean's 2004, p. 171
  5. ^ The London Gazette : 12932, 499 , October 23, 1787.
predecessor Office successor
New title created Marquess Townshend
1787-1807 		George Townshend
Charles Townshend Viscount Townshend
1764-1807 		George Townshend
George Hervey Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1767–1772 		Simon Harcourt
personal data
SURNAME Townshend, George, 1st Marquess Townshend
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman and officer
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1724
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1807