John Moore (British soldier) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, KB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

(13 November 1761 – 16 January 1809) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

soldier and General. He is best known for his military training reforms and for his death at the Battle of Corunna

Battle of Corunna

The Battle of Corunna refers to a battle of the Peninsular War. On January 16, 1809, a French army under Marshal Soult attacked the British under Sir John Moore...

, in which his force was defeated but gained a tactical advantage over a French army under Marshal Soult

Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult

Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia , the Hand of Iron, was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804. He was one of only six officers in French history to receive the distinction of Marshal General of France...

during the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

Early years

He was born in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, the son of John Moore

John Moore (Scottish physician)

John Moore was a Scottish physician and writer.He was born at Stirling, the son of a clergyman. After taking his medical degree at Glasgow, he served with the army in Flanders during the Seven Years' War, then proceeded to London to continue his studies, and eventually to Paris, where he was...

, a doctor and writer, and the older brother of Vice Admiral Sir Graham Moore

Graham Moore

Admiral Sir Graham Moore, GCB, GCMG was a British sailor and a career officer in the Royal Navy. He was the younger brother of General Sir John Moore.-Naval career:...

. He attended Glasgow High School

High School of Glasgow

The High School of Glasgow is an independent, co-educational day school in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded as the Choir School of Glasgow Cathedral in around 1124, it is the oldest school in Scotland, and the twelfth oldest in the United Kingdom. It remained part of the Church as the city's grammar...

, but at the age of eleven joined his father and Douglas, the young 16 year old 8th Duke of Hamilton

Duke of Hamilton

Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that Peerage , and as such its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas...

, (1756–1799), his father's pupil, on a grand tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

of France, Italy and Germany. This included a two-year stay in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, where Moore's education continued.

Military and political career 1776–90

He joined the British Army in 1776 as an ensign in the 51st Foot

51st (2nd Yorkshire West Riding) Regiment of Foot

The 51st Regiment of Foot was a British Army line infantry regiment. During the Childers Reforms it was united with the 105th Regiment of Foot to form the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry....

then based in Minorca

Minorca

Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....

. He first saw action in 1778 during the American War of Independence as a lieutenant in the 82nd Regiment of Foot (1778)

82nd Regiment of Foot (1778)

For other regiments with the same number, see 82nd Regiment of Foot The 82nd Regiment of Foot was a British regiment raised for service in the American Revolutionary War....

, which was raised in Lanarkshire for service in North America by 8th Duke of Hamilton

Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton

Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton and 5th Duke of Brandon KT was a Scottish peer.Hamilton was born at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the son of the 6th Duke of Hamilton and his wife, Elizabeth Gunning...

.

In 1779, he distinguished himself in action during the Penobscot Expedition

Penobscot Expedition

The Penobscot Expedition was the largest American naval expedition of the American Revolutionary War and the United States' worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor...

, when a small British detachment held off a much larger rebel American force until reinforcements arrived.

In 1783, he returned to Britain and in 1784 was elected to Parliament as the Member for Lanark Burghs

Lanark Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)

Lanark Burghs was a district of burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708 to 1832, representing a seat for one Member of Parliament ....

, a seat he held until 1790.

In 1787, he was made Major and joined the 60th briefly before returning to the 51st. In 1791 his unit was assigned to the Mediterranean and he was involved in campaigning in Corsica

Corsica

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

and was wounded at Calvi. He was given a Colonelcy and became Adjutant-General to Sir Charles Stuart

Charles Stuart (general)

Colonel Sir Charles Stuart, KB was a British nobleman and soldier. The fourth son of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute and Mary Wortley Montagu, he was born in Kenwood House, London....

. Friction between Moore and the new British viceroy of Corsica led to his recall and posting to the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby

Ralph Abercromby

Sir Ralph Abercromby was a Scottish soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was noted for his services during the Napoleonic Wars, and served as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.He twice served as MP for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire, and was...

Moore in Ireland 1798

In 1798, he was made Major-General and served in the suppression of the republican rebellion

Irish Rebellion of 1798

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...

raging in Ireland. His personal intervention was credited with turning the tide at the battle of Foulksmills

Battle of Foulksmills

The Battle of Foulksmills, known locally as the Battle of Horetown and also known as the Battle of Goff's Bridge, was a battle on 20 June 1798 between advancing British forces seeking to stamp out the rebellion in County Wexford during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and a rebel army assembled to...

on 20 June and he regained control of Wexford town

Wexford

Wexford is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. It is situated near the southeastern corner of Ireland, close to Rosslare Europort. The town is connected to Dublin via the M11/N11 National Primary Route, and the national rail network...

before the ruthless General Lake, thereby possibly preventing its sacking. Although the rebellion was crushed with great brutality, Moore stood out from most other commanders for his humanity and refusal to perpetrate atrocities.

Moore and military training

In 1799, he commanded a brigade in the expedition to Egmont-op-Zee, where his force was badly defeated and he himself was seriously injured. He recovered to lead the 52nd regiment

52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot

The 52nd Regiment of Foot was a light infantry regiment of the British Army throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries. The regiment first saw active service during the American War of Independence, and were posted to India during the Anglo-Mysore Wars...

during their campaigns in Egypt, having become colonel of that regiment in 1801 on the death of General Cyrus Trapaud

Cyrus Trapaud

General Cyrus Trapaud was a British Army officer.Trapaud was born in Dublin, the son of a Huguenot refugee family, and a relative of Marshall Turenne. He served in the Buffs , accompanying the regiment to the Netherlands in 1742...

.

He returned to England in 1803 to command a brigade at Shorncliffe camp

Shorncliffe Redoubt

Shorncliffe Redoubt is a British Napoleonic earthwork fort of great historic importance, as it is the birthplace of modern light infantry tactics...

near Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...

, where he established the innovative training regime that produced Britain's first permanent light infantry regiments. He had a reputation as an exceptionally humane leader and trainer of men; it is said that when new buildings were being constructed at the camp and the architect asked him where the paths should go, he told him to wait some months and see where the men walked, then put the paths there. The barracks are now named after him. Additionally, Army Training Regiment Winchester is named after him: Sir John Moore Barracks. Sir Arthur Bryant

Arthur Bryant

Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant, CH, CBE , was a British historian and a columnist for the Illustrated London News. His books included studies of Samuel Pepys, accounts of English eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, and a life of George V...

wrote, "Moore's contribution to the British Army was not only that matchless Light Infantry who have ever since enshrined his training, but also the belief that the perfect soldier can only be made by evoking all that is finest in man - physical, mental and spiritual".

War with France 1803–1808

When it became clear that Napoleon was planning an invasion of England, Moore was put in charge of the defence of the coast from Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

to Dungeness. It was on his initiative that the Martello Tower

Martello tower

Martello towers are small defensive forts built in several countries of the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards....

s were constructed (complementing the already constructed Shorncliffe Redoubt

Shorncliffe Redoubt

Shorncliffe Redoubt is a British Napoleonic earthwork fort of great historic importance, as it is the birthplace of modern light infantry tactics...

), following a pattern he had been impressed with in Corsica, where the prototype tower, at Mortella Point, had offered a stout resistance to British land and sea forces. He also initiated the cutting of the Royal Military Canal

Royal Military Canal

The Royal Military Canal is a canal running for 28 miles between Seabrook near Folkestone and Cliff End near Hastings, following the old cliff line bordering Romney Marsh.-Construction:...

in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

and Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, and recruited about 340,000 volunteers to a militia that would have defended the lines of the South Downs

South Downs

The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...

if an invading force had broken through the regular army defences. In 1804 Moore was knighted and promoted to Lieutenant-General. In 1806 he returned to active duty in the Mediterranean and then in 1808 in the Baltic to assist the Swedish. Disagreements with Gustavus IV

Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden

Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden also Gustav Adolph was King of Sweden from 1792 until his abdication in 1809. He was the son of Gustav III of Sweden and his queen consort Sophia Magdalena, eldest daughter of Frederick V of Denmark and his first wife Louise of Great Britain. He was the last Swedish...

led to him being soon sent home where he was ordered to Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

Spanish War 1808–09

Moore took command of the British forces in the Iberian peninsula following the recall of Harry Burrard of Lymington (1 June 1755 – 17 October 1813), Hew Dalrymple

Sir Hew Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, of High Mark

General Sir Hew Whitefoord Dalrymple, 1st Baronet was a British Army general and Governor of Gibraltar.-Military career:...

(1750–1830), Governor of Gibraltar

Governor of Gibraltar

The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The Governor is appointed by the British Monarch on the advice of the British Government...

from November 1806 to August 1808, and Arthur Wellesley

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

(1769–1852), later Duke of Wellington, who all faced an inquiry over the Convention of Sintra

Convention of Sintra

The Convention of Cintra was an agreement signed on August 30, 1808 during the Peninsular War. By the agreement, the defeated French were allowed to evacuate their troops from Portugal without further conflict...

on the French troops' evacuation from Portugal

Portugal

. When Napoleon arrived in Spain with 200,000 men, Moore drew the French northwards while retreating to his embarkation ports of A Coruña

A Coruña

A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...

and Vigo

Vigo

Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...

. Moore established a defensive position on hills outside the town, while being guarded by the 15th Hussars, and was fatally wounded at the Battle of Corunna

Battle of Corunna

The Battle of Corunna refers to a battle of the Peninsular War. On January 16, 1809, a French army under Marshal Soult attacked the British under Sir John Moore...

, being "struck in his left breast and shoulder by a cannon shot, which broke his ribs, his arm, lacerated his shoulder and the whole of his left side and lungs". He remained conscious, and composed, throughout the several hours of his dying, amongst his final words being "Remember me to your sister, Stanhope", referring to his friend, the intrepid Near East Asia traveler Lady Hester Stanhope

Lady Hester Stanhope

Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope , the eldest child of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope by his first wife Lady Hester Pitt, is remembered by history as an intrepid traveller in an age when women were discouraged from being adventurous.-Early life and travels:Lady Hester was born and grew up at her...

. (Her niece suspects they might have considered marrying.) Like Nelson he was mortally wounded in battle, and also like the admiral lived long enough to be assured that he had gained a victory. He said to his old friend Colonel Anderson "You know I always wished to die this way". His last words were "I hope the people of England will be satisfied! I hope my country will do me justice!" He was buried wrapped in a military cloak in the ramparts of the town; the funeral is celebrated in a well known poem by Charles Wolfe

Charles Wolfe (poet)

Charles Wolfe was an Irish poet, chiefly remembered for his "exquisite elegy", The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna-Family:...

(1791–1823), The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna, which begins:

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corse to the rampart we hurried;

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot

O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

and ends, six verses later, with:

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,

But we left him alone with his glory.

When the French took the town, a monument was built over his grave by the orders of Marshal Soult

Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult

. The monument was rebuilt and made more permanent in 1811. In his native Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

he is commemorated by a statue in George Square, and in England by a monument in St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

and an equestrian statue at Shorncliffe. Houses are named for him at The High School of Glasgow

High School of Glasgow

and HM Queen Victoria School, Dunblane

Queen Victoria School

Queen Victoria School was opened on 28 September 1908 by His Majesty King Edward VII, and is Scotland's Ministry of Defence school for the sons and daughters of Scottish soldiers, sailors and airmen...

Publications

J. C. Moore, Life of Sir John Moore (London, 1834), written by another brother of John, James Carrick Moore (1763–1834).
W. F. P. Napier
William Francis Patrick Napier
General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier KCB , Irish soldier in the British Army and military historian, third son of Colonel George Napier was born at Celbridge, near Dublin.-Military service:...

, History of the Peninsular War (five volumes, New York, 1856)
C. B. Mayne, "Moore", in Spenser Wilkinson
Spenser Wilkinson
Henry Spenser Wilkinson was the first Chichele Professor of Military History at Oxford University. While he was an English writer known primarily for his work on military subjects, he had wide interests...

, From Cromwell to Wellington (London, 1899)
Diary of Sir John Moore, edited by Sir J. F. Maurice
John Frederick Maurice
Major-General Sir John Frederick Maurice was an English soldier, born in London. He studied at Addiscombe College and Woolwich Academy and entered the Royal Artillery in 1861...

(two volumes, London, 1904)

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