Memoir of the Services of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment.
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie entered the army on the 9th of April, 1777, as ensign in the late eighty-fourth regiment, (which was disbanded in 1784), and performed garrison duty at Halifax, and other parts of Nova Scotia, for four years, namely, from the year 1777 to 1781. On the 18th of January, 1781, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the late seventy-first regiment, and did garrison duty at New York and Charleston, in North America, and in the island of Jamaica for three years. He was placed on half-pay on the 4th of June, 1784, and was appointed lieutenant in the seventy-seventh regiment on the 25th of December, 1787, and promoted to the rank of captain on the 9th of November, 1788. Captain Macquarie served in various parts of India, from the 3rd of August, 1788, to the 1st of January, 1803; was present at the sieges of Cannanore, in 1790, at Seringapatam in 1791, at Cochin in 1795, and at Colombo, in Ceylon, in 1796. As a reward for his services he had received the brevet rank of major on the 3rd of May, 1796, and continued to serve in various parts of India, during the above-mentioned periods. Brevet Major Macquarie was present at the battle of Seedaseer on the 6th of March, 1799, and at the siege of Seringapatam in April and May following. Brevet Major Macquarie was afterwards employed on service in Malabar, and on the 12th of March, 1801, was promoted from the seventy-seventh to the eighty-sixth regiment. Major Macquarie proceeded with the eighty-sixth and other regiments ordered to embark from India, under Major-General David Baird, to join the army in Egypt, and was present at the siege of Alexandria in August, 1801. In November following he was promoted to the brevet rank of lieut.-colonel. He served at home as Assistant Adjutant-General on the London District Staff, from July, 1803, until March, 1805; and afterwards in India, with the eighty-sixth regiment in the field in 1805 and 1806. On the 30th of May, 1805, he was appointed lieut.-colonel in the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, which corps he returned home to join in 1807, and in May, 1809, embarked with his regiment for New South Wales, of which colony, and its dependencies, he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief. On the 25th July, 1810, he was advanced to the brevet rank of colonel, was appointed brigadier-general on the 21st of February, 1811, and promoted major-general on the 4th of June, 1813. His decease occurred in July, 1824.
Memoir of the Services of Lieut.-General Sir Maurice Charles O’Connell, K.C.H., formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment.
This officer, after serving with the rank of captain in the emigrant army under the Duke of Brunswick in the campaign of 1792, entered the British army sent to the Continent on the breaking out of the war in 1793. He was appointed captain in the fourth regiment of the late Irish brigade on the 1st of October, 1794, and was placed on half-pay on the 1st of March, 1798, on the reduction of that regiment; he was appointed captain in the first West India regiment on the 21st of May, 1800, and joined shortly afterwards at St. Lucia; Captain O’Connell was appointed major of brigade to the forces at Surinam in February, 1802, and served in that colony until its restoration to the Dutch in December of that year, when he joined his regiment at St. Vincent. In May, 1803, he proceeded in command of five companies to Grenada, whence he was ordered with the whole of the regiment to Dominica in 1804. On the 1st of January, 1805, he received the brevet rank of major. He commanded the light company at Roseau, in Dominica, when an attack was made on that capital on the 22nd of February, 1805, by a French force commanded by General La Grange, and successfully resisted, during the whole day, repeated attacks made by very superior numbers of the enemy on the posts occupied by Brevet Major O’Connell, with the forty-sixth regiment, his own company of the first West India regiment, and some colonial militia. He had been appointed major of brigade to the forces at Dominica in February, 1805, and on the 23rd of May following, was appointed major of the fifth West India regiment. In September he returned to England. For his services in the defence of Dominica, Major O’Connell received the thanks of the House of Assembly in that island, and was presented by that body with a sword, value one hundred guineas; he also received a sword, value fifty pounds, and a piece of plate, value one hundred pounds, from the committee of the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd’s. On the 15th of October, 1806, Major O’Connell was appointed to the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, in which he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel on the 4th of May, 1809, and was appointed Lieut.-Governor of New South Wales, where he continued until April, 1814, in which month he embarked in command of the first battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment for Ceylon. In January, 1815, Lieut.-Colonel O’Connell marched in command of a division of the army under Lieut.-General Robert Brownrigg into the territories of the King of Candy, the conquest of which was achieved in forty days, and crowned by the capture of the reigning monarch, who was deposed by his own subjects, and brought a prisoner to Colombo. On the 12th of August, 1819, Lieut.-Colonel O’Connell was promoted to the rank of colonel, and to that of major-general on the 22nd of July, 1830. In 1838, Major-General O’Connell was appointed to the command of the troops in New South Wales, which appointment he held from December of that year until December, 1847. On the 23rd of November, 1841, Sir Maurice O’Connell was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general, and was appointed colonel of the eighty-first regiment on the 6th of December, 1842, from which he was removed to the eightieth regiment on the 15th of January, 1844. The decease of Lieut.-General Sir Maurice Charles O’Connell, K.C.H., occurred at Sydney, in New South Wales, on the 25th of May, 1848.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.