George Lewis (Royal Marines officer)

Lieutenant General George Lewis CB (2 May 1774 – 14 September 1854) was a career officer in the Royal Marines, active during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general and served as Colonel Commandant of the Royal Marines, Portsmouth Division.

George Lewis
Born(1774-05-02)2 May 1774
Stoke Damerel, Devon
Died14 September 1854(1854-09-14) (aged 80)
Stonehouse, Plymouth
AllegianceUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Service/branchRoyal Marines
RankLieutenant General
Battles/warsNapoleonic Wars

War of 1812

AwardsCompanion of the Order of the Bath

Lewis was born in Stoke Damerel, Devon on 2 May 1774. He was the officer commanding the ship's complement of Marines on board HMS Caesar during the Battle of Cape Ortegal in November 1805; the concluding action of the Trafalgar Campaign.

He first distinguished himself on shore while a Captain of Marines on HMS Hibernia, at the start of the Peninsular War. In July 1808, he disembarked at Figueira da Foz in the mouth of the Mondego River in command of a Marine detachment from the squadron, of upwards of 300 marines, in order to counter the French and to support the Portuguese.

He was present with several companies of Marines in the Netherlands from November 1813 to February 1814. This force was to become the third raiding Battalion; a precursor to the Marine Commandos of the 20th century. As the officer commanding this battalion, he prepared the battalion for deployment to North America, and accompanied them.

During the War of 1812, he participated in the Chesapeake campaign, and was present at the battles of Bladensburg and Baltimore, and the attack on Washington. Illness necessitated his departure from that theatre of war in November 1814.

Lewis became a brevet major and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, following his return to England in 1815. Further promotions followed, he became lieutenant colonel and 2nd Commandant and was promoted to Colonel Commandant of the Portsmouth Division on 10 July 1837, vice Colonel Commandant Harry Percival Lewis, retired.[1][2] Hart's 1850 Annual Army List shows George Lewis as a major general on the Army list, having retired from the Royal Marines as a Colonel Commandant with full pay status.

He died in Stonehouse, Plymouth on 14 September 1854.[3] The December 1854 edition of The Gentleman's Magazine carried a brief obituary.[4]

Military promotions and distinctions

See also

Notes
  1. The rank of LtCol & 2nd Cmdt, RM, was abolished, together with the rank of Major, of the Royal Marines in 1837. The "Lieutenant Colonels and Second Commandants" of 1832–37 became "Colonels and Second Commandants" after 1837, while senior captains became eligible for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines.[6]

References
  1. The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine: 1837 Part II. London: William Clowes and Sons. 1837. p. 561.
  2. Google books |Royal Navy Lists published by the Admiralty Office for 1837 and 1839|
  3. "Name Lewis, George Date of Birth: 02 May 1774 Rank: Lieutenant General ..." The National Archives. 1794. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  4. Urban, Sylvanus (1854). The Gentleman's Magazine. 196–197. F. Jefferies. p. 531.
  5. Zerbe, Britt Wyatt (17 September 2010). 'That most useful body of men': The Operational Doctrine and Identity of the British Marine Corps, 1755–1802 (PhD). University of Exeter. hdl:10036/117786.
  6. Army Lists of 1835, 1839
  7. Hart, Henry George (1839). The new army list : exhibiting the rank, standing, and various services of every regimental officer in the Army serving on full pay, including the Royal Marines; ... London: Smith, Elder and Co.
  8. "No. 21564". The London Gazette. 22 June 1854. p. 1939.
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