John Gaspard Le Marchant

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Not to be confused with his son Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant [1]

John Gaspard le Marchant (1766 – 1812), English major-general, was the son of an officer of dragoons, John Le Marchant, a member of an old Guernsey family.

After a somewhat wild youth, Le Marchant, who entered the army in 1781, attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1797. Two years before this he had designed a new cavalry sabre; and in 1801 his scheme for establishing at High Wycombe and Great Marlow schools for the military instruction of officers was sanctioned by Parliament, and a grant of £30,000 was voted for the royal military college, the two original departments being afterwards combined and removed to Sandhurst. Le Marchant was the first lieutenant-governor, and during the nine years that he held this appointment he trained many officers who served with distinction under Wellington in the Peninsula War. This college was one of the forerunners of the current Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Le Marchant himself was given the command of a cavalry brigade in 1810, and greatly distinguished himself in several actions, being killed at the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812, after the charge of his brigade had had an important share in the English victory. He wrote several treatises on cavalry tactics and other military subjects, but few of them were published. By his wife, Mary, daughter of John Carey of Guernsey, Le Marchant had four sons and six daughters.