Clement Neville entered the army at the Revolution; his first commission being dated the 6th of December, 1688, and after serving with distinction in the wars of King William and Queen Anne, he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the army at the close of the campaign of 1711. On the 9th of April, 1720, King George I. conferred on him the colonelcy of the Fourteenth Dragoons, from which he was removed in 1737 to the Eighth Dragoons, and in 1739 he was promoted to the rank of major-general. The colonelcy of the Sixth Horse was conferred on this veteran in the following year; he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1743; and he died in August, 1744.
Richard Viscount Cobham,
Appointed 5th August, 1744.
Sir Richard Temple served under King William in the Netherlands, and on the breaking out of the war of the Spanish succession, he was promoted to the colonelcy of a newly-raised regiment of foot, which was disbanded at the peace of Utrecht. He served under the great Duke of Marlborough, and was conspicuous for a noble bearing, a greatness of soul, and a contempt of danger, which he exhibited in a signal manner at the sieges of Venloo and Ruremonde, at the battle of Oudenarde, and at the siege of the important fortress of Lisle. In January, 1709, he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and his conduct at the siege of Tournay, the sanguinary battle of Malplaquet, and siege of Mons, was rewarded, in the following year, with the rank of lieutenant-general and the colonelcy of the Fourth Dragoons. He served under the Duke of Marlborough in 1711, and had the honour of taking part in the forcing of the French lines at Arleux, and the capture of the strong fortress of Bouchain. After the change in the ministry and the adoption of a new system of policy by the court, the well-known attachment of this officer to the Protestant succession, occasioned him to be removed from his regiment; but on the accession of King George I. he was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron of Cobham, and in 1715 he was appointed Colonel of the Royal Dragoons. In 1717 he was appointed Governor of Windsor Castle; in 1718 he was advanced to the dignity of Viscount Cobham; and in 1721 he was removed to the King's Horse, now First Dragoon Guards. He was also one of the Privy Council, and Governor of the island of Jersey; but resigned his appointments in 1733. On the change of the ministry in 1742 he was promoted to the rank of field-marshal, and in December of the same year King George II. conferred upon him the colonelcy of the First troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. In 1744 he was removed to the Sixth Horse, and in 1745 to the Tenth Dragoons, the colonelcy of which corps he retained until his decease in 1749.
Thomas Wentworth,
Appointed 20th June, 1745.
Thomas Wentworth was appointed to a commission in the army on the 10th of March, 1704, and served several campaigns in the wars of Queen Anne. In December, 1722, he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the army, and in 1732 he was appointed colonel of the Thirty-ninth Foot, from which he was removed in June, 1737, to the Twenty-fourth Foot. Two years afterwards he was appointed brigadier-general; in 1741 he was promoted to the rank of major-general; and in 1745 he was appointed to the colonelcy of the Sixth Horse, which corps became the Second Irish Horse in the following year. He served the crown in a diplomatic as well as a military capacity, and died at the court of Turin in November, 1747.
Thomas Bligh,
Appointed 22d December, 1747.
This officer entered the army in the reign of King George I.; rose to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel of the Sixth Horse, and in December, 1740 he was appointed Colonel of the Twentieth Regiment of Foot. On the 27th of May, 1745, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general; was removed to the Twelfth Dragoons in the following year, and promoted to the rank of major-general in 1747. He was removed to the colonelcy of the Second Irish Horse in December of the same year; and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1754.