He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the island of Minorca in 1763, and was promoted to the rank of Major-General in 1770. In the following year this meritorious officer was rewarded with the Colonelcy of the Ninth Dragoons; in 1774 he was constituted Governor of Quebec; and in 1775 he obtained the Colonelcy of the First Irish Horse (now Fourth Dragoon Guards). Two years afterwards he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General; in 1778 he was removed from the First Irish Horse to the Sixth Enniskillen Dragoons; and was further promoted to the rank of General in 1793: he is stated to have been one of the most celebrated swordsmen of his time. The decease of this distinguished veteran occurred on the 13th of December, 1797, at Hampton, from whence he was removed with great state for interment in Westminster Abbey on the 21st of that month.
George Warde.
Appointed 1st April, 1778.
George Warde entered the army in the reign of George II.; was appointed Captain in the Eleventh Dragoons in 1748, and Major of the same corps in June, 1756. In 1758 he obtained the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Fourth Dragoons, at the head of which corps he served many years, and brought it into so high a state of discipline, that, whenever King George III. reviewed the corps, he expressed his approbation of its excellent condition in the strongest terms. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the army in 1772, and in the succeeding year he obtained the Colonelcy of the Fourteenth Dragoons. The rank of Major-General was conferred on this officer in 1777; he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the First Irish Horse (now Fourth Dragoon Guards) in the following year; and was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1782. In 1792 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, and while in that country he devoted much of his time to the bringing of his regiment,—the Fourth Royal Irish Dragoon Guards,—into a most perfect condition for active service. He possessed the soundest ideas of what cavalry ought to be; he had an aversion to slow movements, and although nearly seventy years of age, he exercised his regiment five times a week,—often leading it across the country over hedge and ditch, to the astonishment of every one. He was promoted to the rank of General in 1796, and died on the 11th of March, 1803. He was celebrated for philanthropy, and was represented by historians as a man 'of inviolable, disinterested integrity, public and private; and the bestower of benefactions scarcely less secret than extensive.'
Miles Staveley.
Appointed 12th March, 1803.
Miles Staveley obtained a Cornetcy in the Royal Horse Guards in January, 1759, and served with that regiment a period of forty years. His first essay in arms was during the Seven-years' war in Germany, where he served under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. He also served in Flanders under his Royal Highness the Duke of York; and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Horse Guards on the 31st of December, 1794. During the following year he was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the army, and in 1798 to that of Major-General. In 1799 he obtained the Colonelcy of the Twenty-eighth, or Duke of York's own Regiment of Light Dragoons, which was disbanded at the peace of Amiens in 1802. In the following year he obtained the command of the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards; was subsequently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General; and died in September, 1814.
Sir Henry Fane, G.C.B.