This officer was appointed Ensign in the Fifteenth regiment of infantry, on the 4th of February 1797; was promoted Lieutenant on the 3rd of May following; and rose to the rank of Captain, in the same corps, on the 15th of August 1805. Captain Burrell was promoted to a Majority in the Ninetieth regiment on the 30th of April 1807, and served at the capture of Guadeloupe, in February 1810, with the expedition under Lieut.-General Sir George Beckwith, K.B., which island had been restored to the French at the Peace of Amiens. He received the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel on the 4th of June 1813, and served during the campaign of 1814 in Upper Canada. He was appointed from the Ninetieth to be Lieut.-Colonel of the Eighteenth Royal Irish regiment, on the 22nd of July 1830, from which date he was promoted to the brevet rank of Colonel.
Colonel George Burrell embarked, in command of the service companies of the Eighteenth regiment, destined for Ceylon, on the 10th of January 1837; in 1840 they proceeded to China, hostilities having arisen between that country and Great Britain. At the first capture of Chusan in July 1840, he commanded the troops with the rank of Brigadier-General, and also a brigade at the attack upon Canton in May 1841. He was nominated a Companion of the Order of the Bath on the 14th of October 1841, and on the 23rd of November following was advanced to the rank of Major-General, and to that of Lieut.-General on the 11th of November 1851. Lieut.-General Burrell was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 11th of February 1852, which he held only a short period, as he died at Alnwick on the 4th of January 1853.
Richard Lluellyn, C.B.
Appointed 17th January 1853.
APPENDIX.
Memoir of the Services of Colonel George Wilson, formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment.
The services of Colonel George Wilson are particularly connected with the Thirty-ninth, as all his regimental appointments occurred in that corps. His commission as Ensign in the Thirty-ninth regiment was dated 18th of February 1784, and he rose to the rank of Lieutenant on the 1st of February 1786, and to that of Captain on the 31st of October 1792. In September 1793 the Thirty-ninth regiment was embarked from Ireland for the West Indies, in order to share in the attack on the French possessions in that part of the globe. The details of these operations are contained in the Historical Record of the Regiment ([pages 38. to 40.]); and on the 6th of October 1794, the garrison at Berville Camp, in Guadeloupe, of which the Thirty-ninth formed part, was, after a gallant resistance, compelled to surrender, in consequence of the havoc made amongst the troops by the unhealthy climate of that island. Captain Wilson was promoted to the rank of Major of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 1st of September 1795, and in April of the following year the regiment formed part of an expedition against the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. These colonies surrendered upon being summoned, and were occupied by the British troops. By official documents it appears that during the greater part of the year 1799, Major Wilson was in command at Fort William Frederick in Demerara. On the 1st of January 1801, he received the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel. The Thirty-ninth returned to England from the West Indies in the spring of 1803, and on the 9th of July of that year Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Wilson was appointed Lieut.-Colonel of the Ninth Battalion of Reserve, and on the 15th of October following was removed to the Thirty-ninth, to which a second battalion had been added. In November 1804 Lieut.-Colonel Wilson embarked at Plymouth in command of the second battalion, which proceeded to Guernsey.
The second battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment proceeded to the Peninsula in June 1809, to join the army under Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir Arthur Wellesley. On the 25th of July 1810, Lieut.-Colonel Wilson was appointed Aide-de-camp to His Majesty King George III., with the rank of Colonel in the army; and he commanded a brigade at the battle of Busaco on the 27th of September following. Colonel Wilson subsequently commanded the brigade to which the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment was attached, and added to the deserved reputation he had already acquired. His career was now drawing to a close, for shortly after the arrival of the Thirty-ninth at Coria, the corps sustained a severe loss in the decease of Colonel Wilson, which occurred on the 6th of January 1813, after a service of upwards of twenty-nine years in the regiment.