Appointed 22nd May, 1829.
Removed to the fifty-seventh regiment on the 4th of December, 1835, and to the twenty-first, Royal North British Fusiliers, on the 31st of May, 1843.
William George Lord Harris, C.B., & K.C.H.
Appointed 4th December, 1835.
This distinguished officer was the son of General the first Lord Harris, and entered the army as an ensign in the seventy-sixth regiment of infantry, on the 24th of May, 1795; was promoted lieutenant in the thirty-sixth regiment on the 3rd of January, 1796, from which he was removed to the seventy-fourth Highlanders on the 4th of September following, and joined in India in 1797. Lieutenant Harris served at the battle of Mallavelly on the 27th of March, 1799, and during the campaign under his father, Lord Harris, which led to the capture of Seringapatam, and was in nearly all the affairs, out-posts, and in the storming party on the 4th of May, 1799, which carried that fortress, where Lieutenant Harris was one of the first to enter the breach, for which he was commended on the spot by Major-General (afterwards Sir David) Baird. Being sent home with the captured standards, Lieutenant Harris had the honor of presenting them to His Majesty King George III., and was promoted to a company in the forty-ninth regiment, on the 16th of October, 1800, which he joined at Jersey, and embarking with it towards the end of the year for England, was wrecked on the passage off Guernsey. Captain Harris afterwards accompanied his regiment in the expedition to the Baltic under the command of Admiral Parker and Vice-Admiral Nelson, and was present in the “Glatton” frigate in the desperate action off Copenhagen on the 2nd of April, 1801. In 1802, Captain Harris embarked with the forty-ninth regiment for Canada, and served in the upper province for two years; being then appointed to a majority in the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, he proceeded to join that corps in India, and on his way out was employed at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in January, 1806, and was present at the action of Blue Berg. The SEVENTY-THIRD having quitted India previously to his arrival, he returned to England the same year, and found he had succeeded to the lieut.-colonelcy of that regiment. Upon the formation of the second battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD, which was placed on the establishment of the army from the 24th of December, 1808, Lieut.-Colonel Harris was appointed to the command of it, and zealously applied himself to perfecting its discipline, and rendering it efficient in every respect. In 1813, Lieut.-Colonel Harris embarked on a particular service with the second battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, but afterwards joined the expedition to Stralsund, in Swedish Pomerania, under Major-General Samuel Gibbs. On arrival Lieut.-Colonel Harris was selected to take the field with his battalion, and place himself under the orders of Lieut.-General Count Wallmoden, and was present in the action of the Gorde (in which he highly distinguished himself), under that commander, on the 16th of September, 1813. In November, 1813, the second battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD re-embarked in the Gulf of Lubec for England; but on arriving at Yarmouth, it was ordered, without landing, to join the army of General Sir Thomas Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) in Holland. During the winter campaign before Antwerp, rendered more difficult in consequence of the severity of the weather, Lieut.-Colonel Harris had the honor of carrying the village of Merxem by storm, under the eye of His late Majesty King William IV., then Duke of Clarence, and, during the remainder of the operations, was employed as brigadier-general. After the peace of 1814, when Antwerp was delivered up, Colonel Harris, to which rank he had been promoted on the 4th of June, 1814, was quartered in that town, and remained in the Low Countries with his battalion during the remainder of the year 1814, and the early part of 1815. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, Colonel Harris joined the army of the Duke of Wellington, and his battalion was appointed to the brigade commanded by Major-General Sir Colin Halkett, and took part in the stubborn contest of the 16th of June, 1815, at Quatre Bras,—assisted in covering the retreat on the 17th; and on the 18th of June, at Waterloo, bore a gallant part in the complete defeat of Napoleon in that memorable battle. Colonel Harris, late in the afternoon, received a shot through the right shoulder, from which severe wound he continued to suffer at times for the remainder of his life. On retiring on half-pay, a testimony of admiration and regard was presented to him by the officers of his battalion in the shape of a splendid sword. On the 19th of July, 1821, Colonel Harris was advanced to the rank of Major-General. Major-General the Honorable William George Harris was employed on the staff of the army in Ireland from the 17th of May, 1823, until the 24th of June, 1825, when he was appointed to the command of the northern district of Great Britain, which he retained until the 24th of July, 1828, and contributed materially in quelling the disturbances in the manufacturing districts. On the decease of his father, Lord Harris, in 1829, he succeeded to the title, and from that period lived in retirement at Belmont, the family seat, near Feversham in Kent. On the 3rd of December, 1832, Major-General Lord Harris was appointed colonel of the eighty-sixth regiment, and was removed to the SEVENTY-THIRD on the 4th of December, 1835. In January, 1837, Lord Harris was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General. His decease occurred at Belmont, after a short illness, on the 30th of May, 1845. Lord Harris was a Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, a Companion of the Bath, and a Knight of the Order of William of Holland.
Sir Robert Henry Dick, K.C.B., & K.C.H.
Appointed 10th June, 1845.
This officer commenced his military career as ensign in the seventy-fifth regiment, his commission being dated 22nd of November, 1800, from which he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the sixty-second foot, on the 27th of June, 1802; was appointed to the ninth battalion of reserve on the 20th of December, 1803, and removed to the forty-second Royal Highland regiment on the 5th of January of the following year. Lieutenant Dick was promoted to the rank of Captain in the seventy-eighth regiment on the 17th of April, 1804, and embarked with the second battalion of that corps for Sicily in 1806; in the battle of Maida, which was fought on the 4th of July, 1806, Captain Dick was wounded; was also present at the taking of the fortress of Catrone in Calabria. Admiral Sir John Duckworth having failed in his mission to detach Turkey from the interests of France, Great Britain determined to seize upon Egypt, as a check to any fresh demonstration by the French against the British possessions in the East Indies, and an armament sailed from Sicily in February, 1807, and landed at Aboukir on the 18th of the following month. This expedition was under the command of Major-General Alexander Mackenzie Fraser, the colonel of the seventy-eighth Highlanders, and Captain Dick was embarked with the second battalion of that regiment. On the 21st of March, 1807, Alexandria was occupied by the British troops; this was the anniversary of the celebrated battle fought there in 1801, when the gallant General Sir Ralph Abercromby received the wound which terminated his career. A force of fifteen hundred men was afterwards detached against Rosetta, before which place Captain Dick was severely wounded. Egypt was evacuated by the British in September, 1807, and the troops returned to Sicily. Captain Dick was promoted to the rank of Major on the 24th of April, 1808, and was appointed to the forty-second Royal Highlanders on the 14th of July following. Major Dick embarked with the second battalion of the forty-second regiment for the Peninsula in June, 1809, and commanded a light battalion at the battle of Busaco on the 27th of September, 1810, and during the retreat to the lines of Torres Vedras; also in the action at Foz D’Aronce on the 15th of March, 1811, where he was wounded; and at the battle of Fuentes d’Onor on the 3rd and 5th of May following. During the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, which was captured on the 19th of January, 1812, Major Dick served with the second battalion of the forty-second regiment, and also at the third siege of Badajoz, which was taken on the 6th of April following. On the first battalion of the forty-second joining the army in the Peninsula towards the end of April, 1812, the soldiers of the second battalion fit for duty were transferred to the former, and the officers and staff of the latter returned to England to recruit. He commanded a light battalion at the battle of Salamanca on the 22nd of July, 1812. At the storming of Fort St. Michael, near Burgos, on the 19th of September, Major Dick commanded the first battalion of the forty-second, and his conduct was commended in the Marquis of Wellington’s public despatch. The siege of the Castle of Burgos was afterwards commenced, but the concentration of the enemy’s forces obliged the British commander to raise the siege and retire to Salamanca, and subsequently to Ciudad Rodrigo. On the 8th of October, 1812, Major Dick was promoted to the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel. In January 1813, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Dick returned to England on two months’ leave of absence, and joined the second battalion, which, after its return from the Peninsula in 1812, had remained in North Britain, until it was disbanded after the termination of the war in 1814.
During the campaign of 1815, Lieut.-Colonel Dick served with the forty-second regiment, and after the death of Lieut.-Colonel Sir Robert Macara, K.C.B., at Quatre Bras on the 16th of June of that year, the command of the regiment devolved on Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Dick, who was slightly wounded in the hip and severely in the left shoulder. He was promoted to be lieut.-colonel of the forty-second regiment on the 18th of June, 1815, the date of the battle of Waterloo, for which he received a medal, in addition to the medal and two clasps conferred on him for the battles of Busaco, Fuentes d’Onor, and Salamanca, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.