Historical record of the Eighty-seventh Regiment, or the Royal Irish Fusiliers

by Richard Cannon

Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B.

Appointed 15th August 1834.

This distinguished officer commenced his military career as an Ensign in the Thirty-eighth regiment, his commission being dated the 30th of September 1793. He joined the regiment in January 1794, at Belfast, and in April proceeded with it to Flanders, where it formed part of the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of York. On arrival at the seat of war, the Thirty-eighth regiment was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count Clèrfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together with the Eighth light dragoons and Twelfth foot. Ensign Reynell was present in the action on the heights of Lincelles on the 18th of May, and at the battle of Hoglade on the 13th of June 1794. He afterwards served with the army under the Duke of York, and was in Nimeguen when that town was besieged. On the 3rd of December following, when cantoned between the rivers Rhine and the Waal, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Thirty-eighth regiment. Lieutenant Reynell served during the winter campaign of 1795, and the retreat through Westphalia to the Weser, and there embarked for England. He accompanied the Thirty-eighth regiment to the West Indies in May 1796, and was present at the capture of the island of Trinidad in the early part of 1797. On the 22nd of July 1797 he was promoted to a company in the Second West India regiment, and joined that corps at Grenada.

Captain Reynell quitted Grenada early in 1798, in consequence of being appointed Assistant Adjutant-General at St. Domingo, where he remained until that island was evacuated by the British in September, when he returned to England. In the beginning of 1799 he revisited St. Domingo, as one of the suite of Brigadier-General the Honorable Thomas Maitland, then employed in framing a commercial treaty with the negro chief Toussaint L’Ouverture, who had risen to the supreme authority at St. Domingo. When it was concluded, Captain Reynell returned to England in July of the same year.

On the 8th of August 1799 Captain Reynell was transferred to a company in the Fortieth regiment, with the first battalion of which he embarked for the Helder in that month, and joined the army, which was at first commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and afterwards by the Duke of York. Captain Reynell was present in the action of the 10th of September; also in the battle of the 19th of September, when he was the only captain of the first battalion of the Fortieth regiment that was not killed or wounded; he was also present in the subsequent battles of the 2nd and 6th of October. Captain Reynell, upon the British army being withdrawn from Holland, re-embarked with the first battalion of the Fortieth regiment, and arrived in England in November 1799.

In April 1800 Captain Reynell embarked with his regiment for the Mediterranean, and went in the first instance to Minorca, afterwards to Leghorn; returned to Minorca, and proceeded with a large force under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, for the attack of Cadiz. Signals for disembarking were made; but although the boats had actually put off from the ships, a recall was ordered, in consequence of the plague raging at Cadiz. After this, he proceeded up the Mediterranean again, and in November landed at Malta. The flank companies of the Fortieth regiment having been allowed to volunteer their services in the expedition to Egypt, Captain Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light company (one of the four flank companies detached under Colonel Brent Spencer), and was present in the action at the landing on the 8th of March 1801. On this occasion the flank companies of the Fortieth were on the right of the line, and were particularly noticed for the gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills immediately where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the battle of the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of the army in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain Reynell proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish battalions to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was present in the action at Rhamanie, on the 9th of May, and followed the French to Grand Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated, and returned as escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and after they had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir Eyre Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria on the 2nd of September 1801 terminated the campaign, for his services in which he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on the several officers employed.

Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed Aide-de-camp to Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as Aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed to the command of the troops at Madras; and while on the passage, namely, the 3rd of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of Major in the Fortieth regiment.

On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel upon being appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General to the King’s troops in the East Indies. In July following he was appointed Aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, Governor-General of India, and accompanied his Lordship from Madras to Bengal, with whom he remained until his Lordship’s decease at Ghazepore in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to Madras immediately afterwards, and was appointed Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the Commander-in-Chief at that presidency. He officiated during several months of the year 1806 as Deputy Adjutant-General in India, in which country he remained until October 1807, when he returned with Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England in April 1808.