John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton

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John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton
The Right Honorable the Lord Seaton

John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton , GCB , GCMG , GCH , PC , (born February 16, 1778 in Lyndhurst , Hants , † April 17, 1863 in Torquay , Devon ) was a British field marshal and colonial administrator.

Life

John Colborne was born the son of the salt merchant Samuel Colborne († 1785) and Cordelia Anne Garstin († 1791) in Lyndhurst. His parents died early; Colborne was an orphan since the age of 13. In 1794, as a sixteen-year-old ensign, he joined the 20th regiment on foot, the Lancashire Fusiliers , and rose there - unusual for a time when the purchasing system was common - step by step without ever having bought an officer position. He had his first war mission in August 1799 in the Den Helder expedition . In 1801 he took part in Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedition to Egypt as a captain .

In the theater of war in Sicily he distinguished himself with Maida (July 6, 1806) and shortly afterwards attracted the attention of John Moore , who gave him a position as major and made him his secretary. In this capacity he stayed at La Coruña until Moore's death in 1809. In accordance with the wish of the fatally wounded Moore, Colborne was now given the position of lieutenant colonel.

In the summer of 1809 Colborne was back on the Iberian Peninsula and witnessed the victory over the Spaniards at Ocaña before he took over his new command in the 66th Regiment on Foot ( The Berkshire Regiment ). With the 66th he took part in the Battle of Busaco and in the defense of the Torres Vedras lines . The following year he temporarily commanded a brigade (1st Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division) in the Battle of Albuera . He distinguished himself so much that he was given command of the famous 52nd Light Infantry ( Oxfordshire and Bucks ); a regiment that he also led at Waterloo and with which his name is primarily associated.

At Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) Colborne was so badly wounded that he could not return to his regiment until July 1813. Shortly thereafter, he was temporarily given command of a brigade of the Light Division, with which he took part in the fighting in the Pyrenees and in the battles of Orthez and Toulouse . After the peace treaty he was appointed Colonel Adjutant to the Prince Regent and was made a Knight of the Order of Bath . In 1815 Colborne and the first battalion of his 52nd Light Infantry, the largest British battalion with a strength of 1,130, played a decisive role in the Battle of Waterloo. When Napoleon played his last trump card around 7:30 pm and used the "Old Guard", which he generally kept in reserve, against the center of the Allied battle lines, their attack was initially repulsed by the British and the Guard fell back to to regroup. It was Colborne who saw the moment and led his battalion by a skillful swing against the left flank of the French, about 10,000 in number. Colborne's men fired a concentrated volley into the unprotected flank of the French and then proceeded to bayonet attack against the top of the column. The orderly French columns disbanded and the guard sought their salvation in flight. The sudden call of "La Garde recule!" ( Eng . : the guard gives way), which could be heard from afar, also carried away the other French troops. When the Prussians advanced and captured the town of Plancenoit , the battle was decided. Napoleon's grand army turned into a headless and leaderless fleeing mass. This decisive battle action of the 52nd Light Infantry and Colborne's personal part in it was initially attributed to the 1st British Guards . Only later did the truth prevail.

Colborne received several medals, was Lieutenant Governor of the Channel Island of Guernsey (1821-1828) and in 1825 Major General. On August 14, 1828 he was appointed lieutenant governor of Upper Canada . He arrived in York (now Toronto ), then a town of about 2,000 people, on November 3rd and took office. Colborne was a successful but not a popular governor. Above all, he campaigned for the improvement of the infrastructure, promoted the construction and expansion of communication lines, roads, bridges and trading centers that were urgently needed in the sparsely populated landscape. He also campaigned for the settlement of the country by British immigrants, also to counterbalance the flow of immigrants from the United States and American influence in Upper Canada. His measures were successful. From 1830 to 1833, the population of the colony rose by 50 percent, and the population of the city of York doubled over the same period.

On the other hand, some of its administrative measures were also sharply criticized. He was accused of preferring British immigrants and misusing public funds. The most controversial point of his activity was the reservation of large lands for the Church of England , of which he was a believing member. This act was one of the triggers for the rebellion that broke out in 1837, which Colborne, who had been replaced in January 1836 by Francis Bond Head as Lieutenant Governor, now as Commander in Chief of the British Armed Forces in Canada with a hard hand crushed.

The Canadians particularly remember the last act of the 1837 rebellion in Saint-Eustache , a town about 30 kilometers northwest of Montreal , where Colborne was personally in command. On December 14, 1837, a 400-man group of patriotic insurgents led by Jean-Olivier Chénier and Amury Girod, who were holed up in a church and its outbuildings, was attacked by Colborne's 2,000-man troops and their artillery. The soldiers set fire to the church and shot at the rebels fleeing from the windows. About a hundred insurgents were killed, including Chénier. The following night Colborne's forces burned the place down completely. In the same way, Saint-Benoît was burned down the following day after the 150 rebels surrendered there without a fight. Since then Colborne has been nicknamed "Le Vieux Brûlot" (German: the old fire ship ) in many Québecois .

When the rebellion broke out again in 1838 - he was almost on his way home - he was given the post of governor general and, as lieutenant general, command of the army throughout British North America. Colborne returned to Quebec and once again put down the rebellion quickly and effectively. He returned to Great Britain in 1839 and was promoted to peer baron Seaton , of Seaton in Devonshire (December 14, 1839); he was also made a Privy Councilor and received a pension of £ 2,000 a year.

He was High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands from 1843 to 1849 , was promoted to general in 1854 and served as Commander in Chief in Ireland from 1855 to 1860 . On April 1, 1860, he retired from active service as a field marshal and died on April 17, 1863 at the age of 85 in Torquay.

Lord Seaton had been married to Elizabeth Yonge, daughter of James Yonge, an Anglican clergyman, pastor of the Newton Ferrers Ward , Devon , since 1813 . They had eight children and two of their sons also became generals.

The cities of Colborne and Port Colborne in Canada are named after Lord Seaton.

literature

  • Rev. William Leeke: The History of Lord Seaton's Regiment, (the 52nd Light Infantry), at the Battle of Waterloo; together with various incidents connected with that regiment, not only at Waterloo, but also at Paris, in the North of France, and for several years afterwards; to which are added many of the author's reminiscences of his military and clerical careers, during a period of more than fifty years . Hatchard & Co, London 1866-1868.
  • George Charles Moore Smith : The Life of John Colborne, Field-Marshal Lord Seaton. Compiled from His Letters, Records of His Conversations and Other Sources . John Murray, London 1903.

Web links

Commons : John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Seaton
1839-1863
James Colborne