General Sir William Meadows (December 31, 1738 - November 14, 1813) - General of the British Army.
| William Meadows | |
|---|---|
| English William medows | |
 General Sir William Meadows | |
| Date of Birth | December 31, 1738 |
| Date of death | November 14, 1813 ( 74) |
| Place of death | Bat |
| Affiliation |  Great Britain British Army |
| Type of army | Infantry |
| Years of service | 1756-1813 |
| Rank | The general |
| Commanded | Commander-in-Chief in Bombay (1788-1790) Commander-in-Chief in Ireland (1801-1803) |
| Battles / wars | Seven year war
Third Anglo-Mysore War
|
| Awards and prizes |  |
Sir William was the son of Philip Meadows, deputy ranger of Richmond Park , and Lady Francis Pierpon, daughter of Evelyn Pierpon, Duke of Kingston.
He joined the British Army as an Ensign in Her Majesty's 50th Infantry Regiment in 1756. [1] In 1760, he proceeded with his regiment to join the Allied army under the command of Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick , who, as an assistant to Frederick the Great, defended West Germany from France. Meadows remained in Germany until March 1764. In 1769, he received the rank of lieutenant colonel of the 5th Infantry Regiment, transferred in September 1773 to the 12th Prince of Wales, Royal Ulan Regiment .
In 1770, Meadows began a romantic relationship with his second cousin, Lady Louise Stewart , who had by then reached thirteen years old, the daughter of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Butte . Meadows was 31 years old, and Lord Bute considered him unsuitable for his daughter and put an end to this relationship. For Lady Louise, this turned out to be a very strong disappointment, and until the end of her life she never got married. Later that same year, Meadows married another lady, Francis Augusta Hammerton.
In 1775, Meadows transferred again, already to the 55th Infantry Regiment, which was to go to America to conduct military operations there against the rebel colonists. He distinguished himself in the battle of Brandywine in 1776 and again in the battle of Saint Lucia in 1778 [1] .
He returned to Britain in 1780 and was promoted to colonel of the 89th (Princess Victoria) infantry regiment. Meadows then took part in an expedition sent under the command of Commodore George Johnston to Cape of Good Hope in 1781. In Porto Praia, on the Cape Verde Islands, on 16 April 1781, a battle took place between the British and the French squadron of Commodore Pierre-Andre de Suffren (also heading for the cape). After recovering from the battle and repairing the ships in Porto Praia, the British went to the Cape of Good Hope and found that Suffren was ahead of them and landed such strong reinforcements that the attack became useless. Johnston decided to head back to the UK; Meadows, having learned that Hyder Ali , the Sultan of Mysore , was actively opposing the British in the south of India, went on three ships and with a large detachment of troops to Madras , where he arrived on February 13, 1782. He accompanied Colonel William Fullarton on an expedition from Madras against Mysore, but soon the sudden conclusion of peace put an end to the campaign.
In September 1788, Meadows received the post of Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Bombay . He remained in this post until January 1790, when he was transferred to a similar post in Madras, which he held until August 1792 [1] . War broke out with Tipu Sultan , the son of Hyder Ali and his heir, and Lord Cornwallis , Governor General, ordered Meadows to begin the campaign. Speaking on June 15, 1790 from Tricinopoli at the head of a 15,000-strong army, Meadows crossed the border with Mysore and moved westward. On July 22, the army arrived in Coimbatore , which turned out to be an abandoned enemy. When Meadows took up the protection of the area, he deployed his troops too sparsely. As a result, Tipu counterattacked these small detachments, and Meadows was forced at the end of 1790 to withdraw his troops to several fortified points.
Meadows then served under the command of Lord Cornwallis throughout the campaigns of 1791-1792. On October 19, 1791 he managed to take Nyndrug [1] . Meadows also commanded the right column in a nightly attack on the redoubts of Seringapatama on February 6, 1792. The results of his attack were contradictory; under cover of darkness, Meadows took an enemy fortification, but not what was planned, while he dangerously exposed the British flank. Tipu took advantage of this - he attacked and practically regained his position, easily injuring Cornwallis in the process. Ultimately, Tipu requested peace, and the battle ended on February 25, when the terms of the agreement were signed. The next day, Meadows attempted suicide by inflicting three bullet wounds on himself. Since the reasons for this act remained unclear, Cornwallis never condemned Meadows for his actions on February 6.
After the Seringapatam Peace Treaty , concluded on March 18, Meadows refused the money (about £ 5,000 ) that made up his share and distributed it among the troops. He left for Great Britain in August 1792.
On December 14 of the same year, Meadows became a knight of the Order of the Bath , on October 12, 1793 he became lieutenant general and in November 1796 he was appointed commander of the 7th Guards Dragoon Regiment . January 1, 1798 he was prematurely promoted to general and received the post of lieutenant governor of the Isle of Wight [1] . In 1801, he briefly became commander in chief of Ireland .
He died in Bath in 1813.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Buckland CE Dictionary of Indian Biography. - London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Lim, 1906.