Sir George Walker, 1st Baronet
Sir George Walker 50th Regiment of Foot 2nd Brigade, 5th Division 1st Brigade, 2nd Division 2nd Division 7th Division Madras Army | |
|---|---|
| Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War
|
| Awards | French Revolutionary War began in 1793, he took a force of volunteers to reinforce the Flanders Campaign, where he fought at the Battle of Tournay. He was appointed Inspector of Foreign Corps while serving on the continent, and as such helped form Roll's Regiment for British service. He took them to England in 1796, and having been promoted to major he went to serve in Portugal in 1797. Here Walker again served as an aide de camp, to at first Major-General Simon Fraser and then the Prince of Waldeck .
Walker was promoted to 50th Regiment of Foot. After serving as an advisor in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland he commanded the regiment in garrisons at Malta and Ireland until 1807 when the regiment fought at the Battle of Copenhagen. After this he was sent with his regiment to join Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley's army in Portugal in 1808. He saw action in the Peninsular War for the first time at the Battle of Vimeiro where his regiment was highly successful. Later in the year Walker was promoted to colonel, and after a period of leave and independent service, he re-joined the 50th in time to fight in the Walcheren Campaign of 1809. Walker was made a brigadier-general in 1810 and sent to serve as a liaison with the Spanish patriot armies of Galicia and Asturias .
Walker was successful in his role and was promoted to major-general in 1811, but the infighting and logistical difficulties of the Spaniards led him to successfully apply for a regular command in the British peninsular army. He was given command of a brigade in the 5th Division with which he fought at the Siege of Badajoz in 1812. His brigade formed the spearhead of a diversionary attack against the fortress, in which Walker was badly wounded. Walker took the rest of the year to recover from his injuries and re-joined the peninsular army in 1812 as commander of a brigade of the 2nd Division. As such he fought at the Battle of Nivelle later in the year, and then was appointed temporary commander of the 7th Division while its commander was on leave. He commanded the division into 1814, fighting at the Battle of the Nive and the Battle of Orthez where he was again wounded. After this he returned to his brigade command, only to learn that his wife had died in February. With his wounds worsening, he took the opportunity to resign his command and did not serve again in the war. Walker later served as Governor of Grenada between 1815 and 1817, and then as Commander-in-Chief, Madras Army, between 1826 and 1831. His last official position was as Lieutenant-Governor, Royal Hospital Chelsea, from 1837. He died in 1842, having through his services earned a baronetcy, and been appointed a knight of the Order of the Bath and of the Order of the Tower and Sword. Early lifeGeorge Townshend Walker was born on 25 May 1764 as the eldest child of Major Nathaniel Walker of the post captain in the navy. Walker was educated at Rugby School from 1773. His father, while fighting in the American Revolutionary War, had him commissioned into the 95th Regiment of Foot as an ensign on 4 March 1782.[Note 1][2][3][4][5]
Military careerEarly careerWalker was promoted to tax farmers of the Nawab of Arcot, who had previously handed control of taxation in his lands to the East India Company but had attempted to continue taking taxes despite this, at Tinnevelli.[6][8][4]
Walker was brought down with French Revolutionary War began in February 1793. He then volunteered to go with new recruits to the army of the Duke of York on the Flanders campaign in March, as part of which he fought at the Battle of Tournay on 10 May 1794. After this he was again appointed to the staff of the army's quartermaster general, and he served as such as the army retreated through the Dutch Republic at the end of the year.[6][8][4]
Regimental commandAfter having been used to fulfil several confidential missions which took him to The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, in early 1795 Walker was appointed Inspector of Foreign Corps, for the purpose of which he was sent to south-west Germany and Switzerland.[4] Here he assisted the French royalist officer Louis de Roll in forming Roll's Regiment for service in the British army. When the allied campaign against France began to falter in April 1795 Walker took command of the regiment and took it to Civitavecchia in Italy where they embarked for England in August 1796.[6][9] He was promoted to major in the 60th on 27 August despite still being detached from them in his role as inspector. In October Spain declared war on Britain and began to threaten Britain's ally Portugal. To assist in defending the country, Roll's Regiment was sent to Lisbon in June 1797, with Walker having gone ahead of it in March. He served as an aide de camp to the second in command of the British army, Major-General Simon Fraser, until June when he was transferred to the staff of the overall Anglo-Portuguese commander, Friedrich Karl August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont.[10]  Later in the same month Walker was again sent home from campaign because of medical issues. Walker and his regiment were not left idle for long after this, forming part of the army of Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley that landed in Portugal on 6 August. He was present at the Battle of Roliça on 16 August but the 50th was in the reserve of the army and did not see action. Their first engagement came in the advance guard of the army at the Battle of Vimeiro four days later; Walker was praised for his conduct during the battle where he turned half of his regiment to respond to a flanking French division that might otherwise have done considerable damage and drove it back down the hill it was attacking. The French unit, numbering around 3–4,000 men, was then forced to retreat 4 mi (6.4 km) with the regiment in chase.[11][13][3][14] For actions such as this, the 50th became one of the most well known regiments in the peninsular army.[15] After the battle Walker went on leave for a while because the 50th did not have enough equipment to continue in the advance of the army and were left as garrison troops in Portugal; during his leave he was promoted to colonel on 25 September.[11][16][12] In January 1809, Walker was sent back to Portugal to give some dispatches to Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, but he arrived two days after Moore had been killed at the Battle of Corunna on 16 January.[11] He took the news of the battle to Lieutenant-General Sir John Cradock, the Lisbon garrison commander, and then returned to England.[16][12] He then returned to regular duties with the 50th, forming part of the army that fought in the Santona to establish a base for the Royal Navy and a supply point for the Spanish armies. Wellesley, now Lord Wellington, removed the British troops from the expedition and instead used it as a diversion from his manoeuvres around the city of Ciudad Rodrigo.[17]
General Walker was promoted to masonic signs he had begun to make. The Frenchman cared for him; he survived and was mentioned in dispatches for the action. He lost a great amount of blood and had several ribs broken; it was thought he might die at one point and he was so weak that he was unable to be moved from Badajoz for four months after the fighting had ended.[Note 4] He later found the French soldier who had cared for him in a prisoner of war camp in Edinburgh and rewarded him.[18][20][21]
After having been sent home to continue recuperating from his wounds in August, Walker was made colonel of the 92nd Regiment of Foot.[18][3][22] Prior to Walker's arrival, the army had fought the Battle of the Pyrenees and the 2nd Division's commander, Lieutenant-General William Stewart, had been wounded during this. Walker served as the temporary commander of the division until his return, and then commanded his brigade at the Battle of Nivelle on 10 November. In October the commander of the 7th Division, Lieutenant-General Lord Dalhousie, left the peninsula and on 18 November Walker was appointed as his temporary replacement. He commanded the division at the Battle of the Nive between 10 and 13 December and the Battle of Orthez on 27 February 1814, where he was wounded while leading one of his brigades in an attack and again mentioned in dispatches.[3] Dalhousie took up his command again in March and Walker returned to his brigade.[18]
 Shortly after this Walker learned that his wife had died on 15 February, and considering the poor state of his existing wounds he decided to leave the peninsular army. This was the end of his active service in the war. For this he was heavily rewarded; he received the On 11 May 1825 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army. Wellington had lobbied heavily for Walker to be given the post, but initially he had been rejected because of his "very bad temper". Wellington persisted in pushing Walker's name forward, and he finally assumed command in India on 3 March 1826. In 1827 Walker put his name forward to become Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal Army which would have made him Commander-in-Chief, India, but this post was instead given to Lord Dalhousie. Walker commanded at Madras until 11 May 1831.[25] He was again rewarded for his service when he was made a baronet on 28 March 1835. He became Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 24 May 1837 and was promoted to general on 28 June 1838. On 23 December 1839 he was given the colonelcy of his old regiment the 50th.[23] DeathWalker died at his house in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 14 November 1842, aged seventy-eight. Personality and possible patronageWalker was a poor man throughout his career, widely known to be existing totally off his officer's pay; it has been suggested that one of the factors that finally swayed his appointment to the Madras Army was that the extra pay from it would assist him in supporting his family.[26] The primary route of promotion for a British Army officer in the period was through the purchasing of commissions, but with his lack of income this was not a route available to Walker. Unusually he never purchased a single promotion, but was instead appointed to every rank. It has been suggested that his climbing of the ranks was assisted by an unknown benefactor, perhaps a member of the Royal Family; his father was given an apartment at Hampton Court Palace upon his retirement and Walker's initial appointment to the 95th was brought about by Queen Charlotte.[27] Despite this possible patronage pushing his career forwards, Walker was also a skilled officer. One officer who served in the 50th said of him that he was:
As well as this, Walker was known to be personally brave, as seen at Vimeiro and Badajoz, but was less well-liked for his command of units outside of battle. He was a strict disciplinarian and his long periods on the staff instead of in regimental duties in his early career may have been the cause of this.[26] FamilyWalker married Anna Allen, the only daughter of Richard Allen of Bury, Lancashire, in July 1789.[6][18][26] Together they had two daughters before her death in 1814:[28]
As his second wife he married Helen Caldcleugh, the daughter of Royal Society fellow Alexander Caldcleugh, on 15 August 1820.[23][3] They had four sons and two daughters:[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]
Notes and citationsNotes
Citations
References
|