Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch

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Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch bigraphy, stories - British Army general

Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch : biography

19 October 1748 – 18 December 1843

General Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, GCB, GCMG, GCTE (19 October 1748 – 18 December 1843) was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland was married and settled down to a quiet career as a landowning gentleman. However, with the death of his wife, when he was aged 42, he immersed himself in a military (and later political) career, during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Early life and education

Thomas Graham was the third and only surviving son of Thomas Græme of Balgowan, in Perthshire and Lady Christian Hope, a daughter of the first Earl of Hopetoun. He was born in 1748, and was educated at home, by Rev. Mr. Fraser, minister of Moneydie, and afterwards by James Macpherson, the collector and translator of Ossian’s poems. He was sent to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1766, and in the following year the death of his father put him in possession of a handsome and unencumbered estate.

On leaving college, he spent several years on the Continent, where he learnt the French and German languages and later he apprenticed to a cracker maker. On his return to Scotland he devoted himself to the management and improvement of his estate. He enclosed his lands, erected comfortable farmhouses and offices, granted leases to his tenants, encouraged them to provide improved implements of husbandry, and to cultivate on a large scale potatoes and turnips, which had hitherto been regarded as mere garden plants. He also set himself to cultivate improved breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep.

In 1785, he purchased the estate of Lynedoch or Lednock, situated in a picturesque part of the valley of the Almond, and took great delight in planting trees and oak coppices, and in beautifying the sloping banks which border the course of that stream. He was fond of horses and dogs, and was distinguished for his skill in country sports. He rode with the foxhounds, and accompanied the Duke of Athole—who subsequently became his brother-in-law—in grouse-shooting and deer-stalking on the Athole moors. He later said that he owed much of that education of the eye with reference to ground and distances, so useful to a military man, to his deer-hunting at this period of his life in the Forest of Athole.

References in popular culture

Graham is portrayed as a major character in Bernard Cornwell’s "Sharpe’s Fury" published in 2006. Cornwell portrays him as an affable Scottish patriot, who lends assistance to fictional hero Richard Sharpe throughout the novel. He also has a house named after him at Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire. The valley containing the township of Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley in South Australia was named "Lynedoch Vale" by Colonel William Light, Surveyor General of South Australia, in December 1837 in recognition of his esteemed friend, Lord Lynedoch, who was his Captain at the Battle of Barrosa. The nearby ranges were named "Barrosa Ranges". Both names were mis-spelt resulting in the unique names Lyndoch and Barossa.

Later life

He was noted for his vigour in his old age.Journal of Henry Cockburn, i. 149. He travelled frequently, visiting Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. In 1841, aged 94, he travelled through France to Genoa and Rome. His riding-horses were sent on to Rome, and he rode frequently in the Campagna. He died at his London home in Stratton Street on 18 December 1843, aged 95, after a very short illness: he rose and dressed himself on the day of his death.Taylor, James. The Great Historic Families of Scotland, (London: J. S. Virtue, 1887) Reprinted (Baltimore: Clearfield Company, 1995) ISBN 0-8063-1464-8 The barony of Lynedoch died with him.

Taylor described Graham as "tall, square-shouldered, and erect, his limbs sinewy and remarkably strong. His complexion was dark, with full eyebrows, firm-set lips, and an open, benevolent air. His manners and address were frank, simple, and polished."