Historical Record of the Forty-sixth or South Devonshire Regiment of Foot / Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1741 and of Its Subsequent Services to 1851

by Richard Cannon

Appointed 5th January, 1804.

This officer commenced his military career, in 1761, as an ensign in the Thirty-eighth regiment, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the fifty-sixth regiment on the 9th of February, 1762, and to that of captain on the 25th of March, 1771. He was promoted from the fifty-sixth to be major in the eighty-third regiment (afterwards disbanded) on the 23rd of December, 1777. Major Whyte was promoted to the rank of lieut.-colonel in the sixth regiment of foot on the 3rd of April, 1782, and received the brevet rank of colonel on the 12th of October, 1793. On the 26th of February, 1795, he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and on the 24th of April following, His Majesty King George III. appointed him to the colonelcy of the First West India regiment. Major-General Whyte was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general on the 29th of April, 1802, and on the 5th of January, 1804, he was appointed colonel of the FORTY-SIXTH regiment. On the 1st of January, 1812, he was advanced to the rank of general. The decease of General John Whyte occurred on the 30th of March, 1816.

Henry Wynyard.

Appointed 1st April, 1816.

The early services of this officer are connected with the first regiment of foot guards, in which he was appointed ensign on the 6th of June, 1778, and in which he rose to the rank of captain on the 4th of June, 1781. In February, 1793, he embarked with the brigade of guards for Holland, and advanced with the army through Flanders. In May following he returned to England, having been promoted to a company with the rank of lieut.-colonel in the preceding month. In November, 1794, he rejoined the British army in the neighbourhood of Arnheim, and after the retreat of that winter, he embarked for England. On the 3rd of May, 1796, he received the brevet rank of colonel; and early in 1798 was appointed to the command of a flank battalion, formed from the grenadiers of the brigade of guards, and in August, 1799, landed at the Helder under General Sir Ralph Abercromby. Colonel Wynyard was present in every action during that expedition except the last; in that of the 19th of September near Bergen he was wounded. On the 29th of April, 1802, he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and in May, 1803, was placed upon the staff of Great Britain, being appointed to the command of a brigade of guards in the Southern District. In September, 1806, Major-General Wynyard embarked with a brigade of guards and other troops destined for Sicily, in which Island he was placed in command upon the southern coast. In January, 1808, he arrived in England, and was again placed upon the staff in the Southern District. On the 25th of April, 1808, he was advanced to the rank of lieut.-general, and in June was appointed to the staff of Ireland, which he held until the 24th of January, 1812. On the 15th of September, 1808, His Majesty King George III. conferred upon him the colonelcy of the sixty-fourth regiment, from which he was appointed colonel of the FORTY-SIXTH regiment on the 1st of April, 1816. Lieut.-General Wynyard commanded the forces in North Britain from the 28th of July, 1812, to the 24th of April, 1816, and on the 12th of August, 1819, was advanced to the rank of general. General Wynyard was also a member of the Consolidated Board of General Officers, and a Groom of the Bedchamber to His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, now King of Hanover. General Wynyard died on the 3rd of April, 1838, after a lengthened service of sixty years.

Sir John (afterwards Lord) Keane, G.C.B., & G.C.H.

Appointed 6th April, 1838.

This officer entered the army at an early age, and on the 12th of November 1794, was promoted to the rank of captain in the hundred-and-twenty-fourth regiment, afterwards disbanded. Captain Keane was placed on the half-pay of the seventy-third regiment on the 11th of March 1795, and on the 7th of November 1799 he was removed to the forty-fourth regiment, which he joined at Gibraltar. During the campaign in Egypt, Captain Keane served as aide-de-camp to Major-General Lord Cavan, and was present in the actions near Alexandria, on the 13th and 21st of March 1801. On the 27th of May 1802, he was promoted to the rank of major in the sixtieth regiment; he remained in the Mediterranean on the staff until March 1803, when he returned to England. Major Keane was promoted to the rank of lieut.-colonel in the thirteenth foot on the 20th of August 1803, which regiment he joined at Gibraltar early in 1804. Lieut.-Colonel Keane afterwards served under Lieut.-General George Beckwith, in the expedition against Martinique in 1809, and was present at the siege of Fort Desaix, which surrendered on the 24th of February, of that year, and completed the capture of the island. In January 1812, he received the brevet rank of colonel, and on the 25th of June following, he was removed to the sixtieth regiment. His reputation was then such that immediately on his arrival at Madrid, he was appointed to command a brigade in the third division of the army under the Marquis of Wellington, in which he served until the end of the war with France, in 1814, and was present at the battles of Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle and Orthes; the action at Vic Bigorre, battle of Toulouse, besides other minor actions. For his services he was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 4th of June 1814, and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath. The honors which Major-General Keane had now acquired were the Egyptian Medal, and a cross and two clasps for Martinique, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse. In August 1814, he was appointed to a command ordered for particular service, and on his arrival at Jamaica, being senior officer, he assumed the command of the military force destined to co-operate with Vice-Admiral the Honorable Sir Alexander Cochrane for the attack on New Orleans and the province of Louisiana. On the morning of the 23rd of December, Major-General Keane effected a landing within nine miles of New Orleans, and the same night, with only eighteen hundred bayonets on shore, repulsed a serious attack of five thousand of the enemy, assisted by three large armed vessels on their flank. He held the command until the 25th of December, when Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham arrived, and assumed the command of the entire army. Major-General Keane was then appointed to the third brigade, and was present in the affairs of the 28th of December and 1st of January, as also at the assault made in the enemy's fortified lines on the morning of the 8th of January 1815, when he was severely wounded in two places. Sir John Keane afterwards passed eight years in Jamaica (from 1823 to 1831), as major-general commanding the forces in that island; and, during a year and a half of the time, he administered the civil government likewise. The colonelcy of the ninety-fourth regiment was conferred upon him on the 18th of April 1829, and on the 22nd of July 1830, he was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general; on the 13th of April, 1831, he was appointed colonel of the sixty-eighth regiment; and in the year 1833, he succeeded Lieut.-General Sir Colin Halkett in the command of the army at Bombay: on the 6th of April 1838, Lieut.-General Sir John Keane was appointed colonel of the FORTY-SIXTH regiment. After nearly six years' service in the Bombay presidency, on the 29th of October 1838, he received authority from the government of India to organise and lead into Scinde a force intended to co-operate with the army then on the north-west frontier of India, under the command of General Sir Henry Fane. In December following Sir Henry Fane forwarded his resignation to head-quarters, and the command of the combined forces devolved upon Sir John Keane, who was now called upon to lead a considerable army, and to conduct operations requiring much discretion, delicacy, and tact in dealing with those half-friendly powers, whose existence is one of the greatest difficulties in the government of a semi-civilized land. After penetrating the Bolan Pass, the troops arrived on the 27th of April 1839 at Candahar, from whence they proceeded to Ghuznee, which was captured by their gallant exertions on the 23rd of July following. This completed the conquest of Affghanistan; and Shah Shoojah-ool-Moolk, after an exile of many years, was restored to the throne of his ancestors. Lieut.-General Sir John Keane, K.C.B., was removed from the FORTY-SIXTH to the forty-third regiment on the 1st of August 1839. For his services during the expedition to Cabool, Lieut.-General Sir John Keane was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath, and on the 11th of December, was raised to the peerage as Baron Keane, of Ghuznee in Affghanistan, and of Cappoquin, county of Waterford, and obtained a pension of two thousand pounds a-year for his own life and that of his two immediate successors in the peerage, added to which he received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and other marks of public approbation. These honors were not long enjoyed by Lieut.-General Lord Keane, who died in the sixty-fourth year of his age, at Burton Lodge, Hampshire, on the 26th of August 1844.

John Ross, C.B.