Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake

Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake (born July 27, 1744 in Harrow , Middlesex, † February 20, 1808 in London ) was a British general, civil servant and politician.

Life

Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake

Lake's Escape from Castlebar Battlefield (1798)

Born to Launcelot Charles Lake and Laetitia Gumley, he joined the British Army in 1758 at an early age . There he served with the Foot Guards , the Guard Infantry. From 1760 to 1762 he fought in Germany in the Seven Years' War and in 1781 he took part in the Battle of Yorktown in the American War of Independence . In 1790 he was appointed major general and in 1793 led the Guards Brigade in the army of Friedrich August, Duke of York and Albany , against the French revolutionary troops in Flanders.

In the Irish uprising of 1798 he worked hard to put down the uprising. In the battle of Vinegar Hill near Wexford (south-east Ireland), as a military leader with around 10,000 men, he was able to decisively defeat the 20,000-strong rebel army. He suffered a setback when he tried 6,000 men in the same year to overpower a French-Irish landing force of 2,000 men. The British were surprised by their outnumbered opponents in the Battle of Castlebar and the British fled in panic, during which the general also lost his personal luggage. The defeat was without consequences, however, as the opponents were finally defeated a few weeks later.

In 1799 Lake became commander in chief of British forces in India. Thanks to his reorganization measures he succeeded in 1803 at the outbreak of the Second Marath War , in short succession to defeat the Indians at Aligarh , to conquer the cities of Delhi and Agra and finally to achieve a decisive victory in the battle of Laswari . For his achievements and successes in India, he was in 1804 with the title Baron Lake , of Delhi and Laswary and of Aston Clinton in the County of Buckingham , in the hereditary nobility raised. Three years later the survey of Viscount Lake , of Delhi and Laswary and of Aston Clinton in the County of Buckingham followed. Both titles belonged to the Peerage of the United Kingdom .

In addition to his military career, he was a member of the House of Commons for the constituency of Aylesbury from 1790 to 1802 . Due to his title of nobility, he was a member of the House of Lords from 1804 . From 1807 he was governor of Plymouth .

He was married to Elizabeth Barker since June 26, 1770, with whom he had three sons and five daughters. He died at the age of 63 on Lower Brook Street in Mayfair , London, of complications from a cold. His title of nobility passed to the eldest son.

literature

• Lake, Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 16 : L - Lord Advocate . London 1911, p. 85 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake on thepeerage.com , accessed August 13, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Viscount Lake 1807-1808	Francis Lake
New title created	Baron Lake 1804-1808	Francis Lake