Charles Rainsford
Charles Rainsford | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 February 1728 West Ham, Essex |
| Died | 24 May 1809 (aged 81) 29 Soho Square, London |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ | British Army |
| Rank | General |
General Charles Rainsford (3 February 1728 – 24 May 1809[1]) was a British Army officer.
Career
He was the second son of alderman Francis Rainsford (died 1770) and his wife, Isabella and received his first education from a cleric friend of Francis's at
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick in Germany, before re-joining Tyrawley as aide-de-camp, brigadier-general and chief engineer in 1762 to face the threatened Spanish invasion of Portugal. Ordered home in 1763, with promotion second major in the Grenadier Guards and equerry to William, duke of Gloucester (1766–80), he commanded the army detachment at the king's bench prison at Southwark
after the May 1768 riot.
He also served as MP for
Baal Shem of London and the Kabbalistic symbolism of higher degrees. He was then sent to be Robert Boyd's second-in-command at Gibraltar on the outbreak of Britain's war with Revolutionary France, and took over after Boyd's death as Governor (1794–95). On his return to England he became governor of Cliff Fort, Tynemouth, his last active posting. On his death in London in 1809 he was buried in a vault in the chancel of the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London
, alongside his first wife, his father and his uncle Charles.
Marriages and issue
- on 18 July 1775 Elizabeth (1758–1781), daughter of Edward Miles
- on 16 February 1789, Ann Cornwallis (d. 1 February 1798), youngest daughter of Sir William More Molyneux of Loseley Park, Guildford – the marriage remained childless.
He and Elizabeth had three children:
- Colonel William Henry Rainsford (bap. 1776, d. 1823)
- Julia Anne
- Josephina, baptised with Sir Joseph Yorke as godfather, died in infancy
Works
His nearly forty volumes of manuscript are now held by the British Library.
References
- ^ "Charles Rainsford (1728–1809)". royalacademy.org.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
External links
- "Rainsford, Charles". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23031. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
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