Forbes Champagné
Born2 July 1754[1]
Clonmacnoise, County Offaly, Kingdom of Ireland
Died23 October 1816(1816-10-23) (aged 62)[2]
Mitcham, London[3]
Buried
Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Mitcham
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
RankLieutenant General
Commands heldBritish Indian Army
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War

Lieutenant General Forbes Champagné (2 July 1754 – 23 October 1816) was a British Army officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War and officiated as Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army from 1807 to 1811.

Background

Champagné was born into a family of French Huguenot exiles in Ireland,[1] the son of the Very Rev. Arthur de Robillard Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise, and Marianne Hamon, daughter of Colonel Isaac Hamon. His paternal great-grandfather was Chevalier Josias de Robillard, Seigneur de Champagné de Torxé, Saintonge,[4] who fled to Holland after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685,[5] joining William of Orange's army. He married Marie de la Rochefoucauld of the noble house of the same name. Their daughter Susanne married Henri de la Motte-Fouqué, baron de Saint-Seurin et de Tonnay-Boutonne, and was mother of Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué. Their eldest son, Josias de Robillard (Forbes' grandfather), distinguished himself at a young age in service of Major-General Isaac de Monceau de la Melonière, who commanded a regiment of exiles in William's army during the Irish campaigns.[1] He married Lady Jane Forbes, daughter of Arthur Forbes, 2nd Earl of Granard.[6]

Forbes had three brothers: General Sir Josiah Champagné; Rev. Arthur Champagné, vicar of Castlelyons; and Rev. George Champagné, Canon of Windsor and Rector of Twickenham. He had six sisters, including Jane, who married the Earl of Uxbridge; Henrietta, wife of Sir Erasmus Dixon Borrowes, 6th Baronet; and Marianne, wife of Sir Charles des Voeux, 1st Baronet.[1][6]

Military career

Champagné was commissioned into the 4th Regiment of Foot in 1773.[7] He served in the Southern Colonies during the American Revolutionary War[8] and took part in the Battle of Wetzell's Mill in 1781.[9] By 1796 he had been appointed Commanding Officer of the 20th Regiment of Foot.[10]

He was promoted to colonel on 26 January 1797 and to major general on 25 September 1803.[11] He started officiating as Commander-in-Chief, India in 1807 and was also appointed colonel of the 1st Battalion of the 95th Regiment of Foot in 1809.[12]

Promoted to lieutenant general on 25 July 1810,[13] he ceased officiating as Commander-in-Chief, India, following the appointment of Sir George Nugent, 1st Baronet in 1811.[14]

He lived in Merton[15] and died on 23 October 1816.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Agnew, David Carnegie Andrew (1871). Protestant Exiles from France in the Reign of Louis XIV: Or, The Huguenot Refugees and Their Descendants in Great Britain and Ireland. Reeves & Turner. p. 127. Retrieved 23 June 2018. Forbes Champagné.
  2. ↑ Surrey, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1987
  3. ↑ "Lieutenant General Forbes Champagne 1816". The Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  4. ↑ Revue de Saintonge & d'Aunis: bulletin de la Société des archives (in French). 1890. p. 298. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  5. ↑ Brady, William Maziere (1864). Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. p. 98. Retrieved 23 June 2018. chevalier de Champagné josias.
  6. 1 2 Burke, John Bernard (1845). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn. p. 451. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  7. ↑ "No. 11364". The London Gazette. 22 June 1773. p. 1.
  8. ↑ Southern Campaigns in the Revolutionary War
  9. ↑ The American Revolution in North Carolina
  10. ↑ Reminiscences of my military life from 1795 to 1818, by Charles Steevens
  11. ↑ The Army List, 1812, p. 6
  12. ↑ British Regiments and the Men Who Led Them 1793-1815: 95th Regiment of Foot Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ "No. 16390". The London Gazette. 24 July 1810. p. 1093.
  14. ↑ "Sir George Nugent, 1st Baronet". History of Parliament. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  15. ↑ Bulletin 168 Merton Historical Society, December 2008
  16. ↑ The Paget Brothers 1790-1840
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