Thomas Viscount Windsor,
Appointed 18th May, 1712.
Lord Thomas Windsor, second son of Thomas Earl of Plymouth, the first Colonel of this regiment, served with distinction in the army in the wars of King William III., and, on the 23rd of January, 1692, he obtained the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Fourth Horse. On the 16th of February, 1694, he was appointed to the Colonelcy of a newly-raised regiment of horse, which was disbanded after the peace of Ryswick. On the 19th of June, 1699, he was advanced to the peerage of Ireland by the title of Viscount Windsor. After the decease of the Earl of Macclesfield, in 1701, the Colonelcy of the Tenth Horse was conferred upon Viscount Windsor, who was promoted, on the 9th of March, 1702, to the rank of Brigadier-General, and on 1st of January, 1704, to that of Major-General. In October of the latter year his regiment was given to Samuel (afterwards Lord) Masham. The rank of Lieutenant-General was, however, conferred upon his Lordship in 1707; in April, 1711, he was restored to the Colonelcy of the Tenth Horse; and in December of the same year, he was made an English Peer, by the title of Baron Montjoy, of the Isle of Wight. The Colonelcy of the Fourth Horse was conferred upon his Lordship in 1712; from which he was removed, by King George I., in 1717: he died in 1738.
George Wade,
Appointed 19th March, 1717.
This officer engaged in the profession of arms in the reign of William III., and, after serving the Crown with zeal and fidelity for many years, he was eventually rewarded with the highest honours of the service. His first commission was dated the 26th of December, 1690; and he served in the Netherlands under King William until the peace of Ryswick. Having rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the Tenth Regiment of Foot, he proceeded, on the breaking out of the war of the Spanish succession, with the expedition to Portugal, and was appointed Adjutant-General to the army commanded by the Earl of Galway, with the brevet rank of Colonel, by commission dated the 22nd of August, 1704. After the death of Colonel Duncasson, who was killed at the siege of Valencia de Alcantara, in May, 1705, the command of the Thirty-third Foot was conferred upon Colonel Wade, by commission bearing date the 9th of June in the same year. Continuing to serve in the Peninsula, and, by his personal exertions, gaining laurels even in the midst of the reverses and disasters which befell the army, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General on the 1st of January, 1708; and, in the following year he received a complimentary communication from King Charles III. (afterwards Emperor of the Romans), with the commission of Major-General in Spain; in which country he served during the remainder of the war, and highly distinguished himself in the command of a brigade of infantry at the battle of Saragossa in 1710.
On the accession of King George I., Brigadier-General Wade was advanced to the rank of Major-General; and, proving a faithful and trustworthy servant to the Crown, at a time when jacobin principles were prevalent in the nation, his Majesty appointed him, on the 19th of March, 1717, Colonel of the Fourth Horse. In 1724 he commanded in Scotland; and some important roads through the Highlands were constructed under his direction and superintendence. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General on the 7th of March, 1727; to that of General on the 2nd of July, 1739; and he was further advanced to the rank of Field-Marshal on the 14th of December, 1743. In the following year, this distinguished veteran, being then in the seventy-sixth year of his age, engaged in active service, and commanded the British troops in the Netherlands in the campaign of 1744, but afterwards returned to England; and, in the succeeding year, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, during the absence of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland on the Continent. In the autumn of the same year a rebellion broke out in Scotland, and Field-Marshal Wade commanded an army in Yorkshire, and was actively engaged in the pursuit of the rebels after their retreat from Derby. He was Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance and one of his Majesty's Privy Council; and, after serving the Crown a period of fifty-eight years, died on the 14th of February, 1748, in the eightieth year of his age.
The Hon. Sir Charles Howard, K.B.,
Appointed 15th March, 1748.
The Honourable Charles Howard, second son of Charles third Earl of Carlisle, entered the army in the second year of the reign of King George I., and was appointed Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards in April, 1719. He was appointed Deputy-Governor of Carlisle in March, 1725; rose to the rank of Colonel on the 23rd of April, 1734; and was appointed Aide-de-camp to King George II. He was promoted, on the 1st of November, 1738, to the command of the Nineteenth Regiment of Foot; was appointed Brigadier-General on the 18th of February, 1742, and proceeded with the army, commanded by the Earl of Stair, to Flanders, in the same year. He was promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 4th of July, 1743; to that of Lieutenant-General on the 9th of August, 1747; and, in March, 1748, to the Colonelcy of the Third Dragoon Guards. In June, 1749, he was created a Knight of the most honourable Order of the Bath; and, in March, 1765, he was promoted to the rank of General.