Charles Griffiths (British Army officer)
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant-General Charles Griffiths (3 August 1763 – 31 May 1829, Knightsbridge
, London, England) was a British soldier
, foster brother to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
, Lieutenant-General and Governor of Yarmouth Castle
, Isle of Wight
.
and Elizabeth, the daughter of Stanhope Aspinwall
. His elder brother, John Griffiths of Erryd, was a medical practitioner and surgeon to Queen Charlotte's Household 1792–1818. His elder brother's wife, Elizabeth, was the sister of his own wife.
in the 15th Regiment of Foot. He was placed on half-pay
in 1783, restored to full-pay in the 40th Regiment
in 1786 and appointed Lieutenant
in the 76th Regiment of Foot
in 1787.
, Griffiths served in the East Indies
(i.e. India
). He was present at the siege, assault, and capture of the town and fortress of Bangalore
, also at the siege and storming of the hill fort of Savendroog in the general action near Seringapatam with Tippu Sultan on 15 May 1791. He was there wounded in the general action on 6 February 1792, when the enemy's lines were stormed under the walls of Seringapatam and at the siege of that capital. It terminated in the peace of 19 March of that same year.
in the 14th Foot and with them he participated in the French Revolutionary Wars
. He served in Flanders
with the army under the Duke of York, and was in the actions of 17/18 May, and at Ponte chin on 22 May, with the brigade under Major-General Henry Edward Fox
, consisting of the 14th, 37th, and 53nd Regiments. He was in the action of Geldermansel or Geldermalsen
, on the Waal, under Lord Cathcart. He was appointed Major
in the 82nd Regiment
in 1796, and served in Ireland
and Minorca
witli that Corps. Griffiths was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in ancient Irish Fencibles
on 11 December 1800. He served with that corps in Egypt
, and was present at the Siege of Alexandria (1801).
, Griffiths was subsequently placed on the Staff in Ireland and England, and received the Brevet (military)
of Colonel
in 1810. In the following year he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Regiment of Foot, which corps he joined at Gibraltar
. He received the rank of Major-General on 4 June 1813, and was placed on the Staff of the garrison at Gibraltar
. In the neighbouring Straits he commanded for nearly two years the British auxiliary troops in the fortress of Ceuta
. He attained the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1825.
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, London, England) was a British soldier
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, foster brother to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
, Lieutenant-General and Governor of Yarmouth Castle
Yarmouth Castle
Yarmouth Castle is a small off-square blockhouse built by Henry VIII in 1547, to guard Yarmouth harbour on the Isle of Wight. It was built as part of Henry's second device programme to fortify the English coast with a chain of coastal defences known as Device Forts or Henrician Castles. These were...
, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
Parents and marriage
Griffiths was the son of the Reverend John Griffiths and his wife Mary, the daughter of John Denham. Mary has been described as the foster-mother to the Duke of York, second son of George III. Griffiths was thirteen days older than the Duke of York and has been described in turn as the latter's foster-brother. He married on 7 June 1796 Caroline Francis, the daughter of Sir William Neville HartWilliam Neville Hart
William Neville Hart was a British banker, politician and diplomat. He was born to Denise Gougeon, the wife of Lewis Augustus Blondeau. His mother was the Under Housekeeper or Mistress of the King’s Household, a position she was to hold for more than fifty years...
and Elizabeth, the daughter of Stanhope Aspinwall
Stanhope Aspinwall
Stanhope Aspinwall was a British diplomat. He was born to Richard Aspinwall and his wife Elizabeth Stanhope, the great granddaughter of Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield, the granddaughter of Arthur Stanhope and daughter of Charles Stanhope.Stanhope Aspinwall was educated at Westminster...
. His elder brother, John Griffiths of Erryd, was a medical practitioner and surgeon to Queen Charlotte's Household 1792–1818. His elder brother's wife, Elizabeth, was the sister of his own wife.
Military career
In 1779, Griffiths was appointed EnsignEnsign
An ensign is a national flag when used at sea, in vexillology, or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry...
in the 15th Regiment of Foot. He was placed on half-pay
Half-pay
In the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, half-pay referred to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service....
in 1783, restored to full-pay in the 40th Regiment
40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot
The 40th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1717 and amalgamated into The Prince of Wales's Volunteers in 1881.-Formation:...
in 1786 and appointed Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the 76th Regiment of Foot
76th Regiment of Foot
The 76th Regiment of Foot was originally raised as Lord Harcourt's Regiment on 17 November 1745 and disbanded in June 1746. Following the loss of Minorca to the French, it was raised again in November 1756 as the 61st Regiment, but renumbered to 76th, by General Order in 1758, and again disbanded...
in 1787.
Service in India
During the Third Anglo-Mysore WarThird Anglo-Mysore War
The Third Anglo-Mysore War was a war in South India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company and its allies, including the Mahratta Empire and the Nizam of Hyderabad...
, Griffiths served in the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
(i.e. India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
). He was present at the siege, assault, and capture of the town and fortress of Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, also at the siege and storming of the hill fort of Savendroog in the general action near Seringapatam with Tippu Sultan on 15 May 1791. He was there wounded in the general action on 6 February 1792, when the enemy's lines were stormed under the walls of Seringapatam and at the siege of that capital. It terminated in the peace of 19 March of that same year.
French Revolutionary Wars
Later, in 1794, Griffiths was promoted to a companyCompany (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
in the 14th Foot and with them he participated in the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
. He served in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
with the army under the Duke of York, and was in the actions of 17/18 May, and at Ponte chin on 22 May, with the brigade under Major-General Henry Edward Fox
Henry Edward Fox
General Henry Edward Fox was a British Army general. He also served for a brief spell as Governor of Minorca.-Family:...
, consisting of the 14th, 37th, and 53nd Regiments. He was in the action of Geldermansel or Geldermalsen
Geldermalsen
Geldermalsen is a municipality and a town in the western Netherlands. The municipality of Geldermalsen was formed on the 1st of January 1978 when former municipalities Beesd, Buurmalsen, Deil and Geldermalsen were joined. The new municipality with approximately 10.173 hectares is one of the...
, on the Waal, under Lord Cathcart. He was appointed Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in the 82nd Regiment
82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers)
The 82nd Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, created in 1793 and amalgamated into The Prince of Wales's Volunteers in 1881....
in 1796, and served in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
witli that Corps. Griffiths was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in ancient Irish Fencibles
Fencibles
The Fencibles were army regiments raised in the United Kingdom and in the colonies for defence against the threat of invasion during the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars in the late 18th century...
on 11 December 1800. He served with that corps in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, and was present at the Siege of Alexandria (1801).
Later career and the Napoleonic Wars
During the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, Griffiths was subsequently placed on the Staff in Ireland and England, and received the Brevet (military)
Brevet (military)
In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...
of Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in 1810. In the following year he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Regiment of Foot, which corps he joined at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
. He received the rank of Major-General on 4 June 1813, and was placed on the Staff of the garrison at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
. In the neighbouring Straits he commanded for nearly two years the British auxiliary troops in the fortress of Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
. He attained the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1825.