Томас Грэм, 1-й барон Линедоч: Жизнь и военная карьера

British Army general (1748–1843)

Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (19 October 174818 December 1843) was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quiet career as a landowning gentleman. However, with the death of his wife, when he was aged 42, he immersed himself in a military (and later political) career, during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Taylor described Graham as "tall, square shouldered, and erect, his limbs sinewy and remarkably strong. His complexion was dark, with full eyebrows, firm set lips, and an open, benevolent air. His manners and address were frank, simple, and polished". He was born in 1748, and was educated at home by the Reverend Fraser, minister of Moneydie, and afterwards by James Macpherson, the collector and translator of Ossian's poems. He went up to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1766, and the following year he inherited the family estate following the death of his father. On leaving college, he spent several years on the Continent, where he learnt French, German and Spanish. On his return to Scotland he applied himself to the management and improvement of his estate, enclosing his lands, erecting farmhouses and offices, granting leases to his tenants, encouraging them to implement improved methods of husbandry, and to cultivate potatoes and turnips on a large scale, which had hitherto been regarded as garden plants. He also set himself to cultivate improved breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep. In 1774, Graham married Mary Cathcart and on the same day her elder sister Jane became Duchess of Atholl. "Jane," wrote 9th Lord Cathcart, "has married, to please herself, John, Duke of Atholl, a peer of the realm; Mary has married Thomas Graham of Balgowan, the man of her heart, and a peer among princes." A solicitous husband, when his wife discovered on the morning of an Edinburgh ball that she had left her jewel box at Balgowan, Graham rode the 90 mile (145 km) to and from Balgowan using relays of horses to ensure that his wife would have her jewellery at the ball. Graham spent the next eighteen years as a quiet country gentleman, spending his time on riding and sports, studying the classics and making occasional visits to London and Edinburgh. Mary Graham is commemorated in a four part Scottish fiddle tune composed in her honor, entitled "The Honourable Mrs. Graham of Balgowan." The loss of his wife preyed deeply upon Graham's mind, and first he set out for twelve months of foreign travel. However, still overwhelmed by great sorrow, and now in his forty third year, he tried to drown the thought of his loss by adopting a military career. and some corps embodied under his immediate direction. The French lost about three thousand men in this action, and six pieces of cannon and an eagle were captured, along with nearly five hundred prisoners, among whom were Generals Ruffin and Rosseau. The loss on the side of the victors was two hundred killed, and upwards of nine hundred were wounded. Had it not been for the actions of the Spanish general, the victory might have had the effect of raising the blockade of Cádiz. "Had the whole body of the Spanish cavalry", wrote Graham, "with the horse artillery, been rapidly sent by the sea beach to form on the plain, and to envelop the enemy's left; had the greatest part of the infantry been marched through the pine wood to the rear of the British force, to turn his right, he must either have retired instantly, or he would have exposed himself to absolute destruction; his cavalry greatly encumbered, his artillery lost, his columns mixed and in confusion; and a general dispersion would have been the inevitable consequence of a close pursuit. But the movement was lost". The Spanish general, in order to screen himself from criticism, circulated less damning accounts of his own role in the battle, which General Graham refuted by publishing in Spanish, as well as in English, his dispatch to Lord Liverpool, along with a letter to the British envoy, in vindication of his conduct. Lord Wellington mentions that La Pena was to be brought to a court martial, where he was acquitted but stripped of command. The Cortes voted to General Graham the title of grandee of the first class; he, however, declined the honour. For his brilliant victory at the Battle of Barrosa he received the thanks of Parliament, in his place as a member of the House of Commons. looting, raping the women and burning almost the whole town to the ground, a mayhem lasting for a week. On 9 September the Governor Rey surrendered the citadel, and the garrison, reduced to one third of their number, marched out with the honours of war. The reduction of this important place cost the British three thousand eight hundred men in killed and wounded. A candle lit memorial event is held nowadays every 31 August, mourning these tragic days.</blockquote>

On 3May 1814, he was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Lynedoch of Balgowan in the County of Perth, but, in keeping with his disinterested and high minded character, he declined the grant of £2,000 a year, to himself and to his heirs, which was voted as usual to accompany the title. British and foreign honours followed: a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, of the Spanish Order of St. Ferdinand, and of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. He was raised to the full rank of general in 1821 and nominated colonel of the 58th Foot in 1823, followed by the 14th Foot in 1826, which he exchanged in 1834 for the colonelcy of the Royals. He was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow in 1813, and in 1829 appointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle. He travelled frequently, visiting Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. In 1841, aged 94, he travelled through France to Genoa and Rome. His riding horses were sent on to Rome, and he rode frequently in the Campagna. He died at his London home in Stratton Street on 18 December 1843, aged 95, after a very short illness: he rose and dressed himself on the day of his death.

The names of Lyndoch township and the Barossa Valley in South Australia are derived from "Lynedoch Vale" and the "Barrosa Ranges", named by Colonel William Light, Surveyor General of South Australia, in December 1837 in recognition of his esteemed friend, Lord Lynedoch, who was his commander at the Battle of Barrosa. Both names were mis spelt on early maps, resulting in the unique names Lyndoch and Barossa. Graham has a house named after him at the Scottish Private school Morrison's Academy in Crieff, Perthshire near his home of Balgowan. There is a house named after him at the English Private school Wellington College. Graham is portrayed as a major character in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Fury published in 2006. Cornwell portrays him as an affable Scottish patriot, who lends assistance to fictional hero Richard Sharpe throughout the novel. He was fictionally represented by name in Patrick Graham's Bollywood television series Betaal (2020). He was shown as being a practitioner of black magic in the series. In it, he raises his Zombie Army of the fictionally taken regiment of 90th Taunton Volunteers after 160 years. The regiment storms centuries old barracks and fights a fictional state force ultimately to protect their land from outsiders. In the starting prelims of the first episode it shows a backscript as — 17 June 1857 "The Journal of Colonel Lynedoch" reads: "We came to help these people but they resist. The mutiny has reached us. How dare they? I will use their own guardians against them. I will harness the Betaal's curse and grind these savages into the dirt. It seems there are rebels in the tunnel. I must go " As to display the anger of the Colonel against the mutineers in the 1857 rebellion of which the Colonel and his regiment had become a victim.