John Gurwood

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Portrait of John Gurwood by William Salter , 1834–1840

John Gurwood (* 1790 - December 25, 1845 in Brighton ) was a British officer . He took part in the Napoleonic Wars and became known as the editor of Wellington's dispatches.

Life

At his father's request, John Gurwood first became a businessman's apprentice. However, an unhappy love drove him to join the military in 1808 in order to forget the pain under the din of arms. On March 30, 1808, he entered the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot as Ensign and took part in the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula , where he was distinguished by his bravery and his thorough knowledge of the Spanish and French languages . In 1811 he was wounded for the first time near Sabugal. During the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo on January 19, 1812, he led one of the two voluntary vanguard guards ( forlorn hope ), which were destined to drive the enemy out of the breaches he stubbornly defended. Gurwood received a severe head wound, fell and lay unconscious for a while, but came to and climbed the bastion. Inside the fortress he rescued a French officer whom an Irish soldier tried to throw down with a bayonet by making him a prisoner. This then led him to a tower where the commandant, General Jean Léonard Barrié , was with several other French officers, who surrendered. When Gurwood escorted the commander to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , the latter presented him with his sword with the words: "Take the sword, it is your responsibility to carry it." This was a very rare award in the British Army. Gurwood continued to carry the sword after he had been given special permission to do so.

After the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo Gurwood got a job as captain of the Royal African Corps , he also became adjutant of Lord Edward Somerset . Then he switched to a British cavalry regiment, the 9th Light Dragoons , and became brigade major of the Household Cavalry , which had just arrived on the Iberian Peninsula . He later took part in the battles of Nivelle (November 10, 1813), Nive (December 9-13, 1813), Orthez (February 27, 1814) and Toulouse with the corps of Major General John Lambert , which was part of the 6th Infantry Division (April 10, 1814). He was one of those officers who were transferred to the 10th Royal Hussars Cavalry Regiment after the court martial against Colonel George Augustus Quentin (October 1814) . Gurwood also served as Sir Henry Clinton's adjutant when he was deputy to the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands. For a short time Gurwood was also Quartermaster General at the Prince's headquarters. In the battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) he was again seriously wounded and as a result unable to work in foreign services. He returned to England and was 1817 certification - Major and in 1827 Lieutenant-Colonel . He was retired on half pay in 1822 and later appointed private secretary by the Duke of Wellington. In November 1841 he was promoted to Brevet Colonel and after the death of the Earl of Munster (March 1842) was appointed Vice-Commander of the Tower of London by the Duke of Wellington .

In 1834 Gurwood began editing the work, which continued until the end of his life, through which his name became known in wider circles: The Despatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington during his various Campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries and France from 1799 to 1818 (13 volumes). It is a collection of Wellington's dispatches, orders of the day and reports relating to the battle of the British Army against Napoleon Bonaparte . Although it was so voluminous, the work was surprisingly approved. A second edition soon became necessary and a short edition had to be published in one volume to meet the demand of the large part of the public who could not purchase the entire work. The publication of the dispatches made a major contribution to raising the popularity of the Duke of Wellington, which had fallen very much in England. Gurwood received an annual civil servant pension of £ 200 for his literary activities.

In the second edition of Napier's History of the Peninsular War (1840) the statement by a major, who had since died in 1839, was indented that the commander of Ciudad Rodrigo had surrendered to him and not to Gurwood. When Gurwood happened to find among the dispatches a letter addressed to the Duke, which he suspected to be a letter from the same French officer he had saved the life of at Ciudad Rodrigo, he turned to him, and it turned out that he was really the same man from whom he received full confirmation of the incident as an eyewitness. Gurwood published this in the pamphlet Major General Napier and Colonel Gurwood (London 1845).

The strenuous work of editing Wellington's dispatches and the aftermath of his wounds received during his previous military service undermined Gurwood's health. On Christmas Day 1845, at the age of 55, he committed suicide in Brighton, where he had gone to restore his health.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Gurwood, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer
DATE OF BIRTH 1790
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1845
Place of death Brighton