De Lacy Evans

For the Australian male impersonator, see Edward De Lacy Evans.
George de Lacy Evans

De Lacy Evans by Peter Edward Stroehling, ca. 1825
Born Moig, County Limerick Ireland
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Rank general
Commands held
Battles/wars

War of 1812:

Other work Member of Parliament

Sir George de Lacy Evans GCB (1787 – 9 January 1870) was a British Army general who served in four wars in which the United Kingdom's troops took part in the 19th century. He was later a long-serving Member of Parliament.[1]

Evans was born in 1787, in Moig, County Limerick, Ireland. Educated at Woolwich Academy he entered the British Army in 1806 as a volunteer, obtaining an ensigncy in the 22nd Regiment of Foot in 1807. His early service was in India, but he exchanged into the 3rd Light Dragoons in order to take part in the Peninsular war. He was sent on the expedition to the United States of 1814 during the War of 1812 under Major General Robert Ross. Evans was quartermaster general to Ross at the Battle of Bladensburg on 24 August 1814, and during the Burning of Washington, as well as at the Battle of North Point on 12 September 1814, where Ross was killed.

Evans photographed in 1855

Returning to the European war with the restoration of Emperor Napoleon I, Evans was present at the battle of Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815 and the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

Evans commanded the British Legion which volunteered to assist Isabella II of Spain in the First Carlist War. During the Crimean War he commanded the 2nd Division of the British Army.

He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Rye in 1830, and from 1831 to 1832, and for Westminster from 1833 to 1841 and from 1846 to 1865. He was also awarded the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor.[2] Evans died on 9 January 1870, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

Portraits of Evans were painted by Peter Edward Stroehling (above) and Richard Buckner.[3] An engraving based on the latter is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[3]

Funerary monument, Kensal Green Cemetery, London

References

  1.  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Evans, Sir George de Lacy". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  2. A dictionary of general biography: with a classified and chronological index of the principal names, William Leist Readwin Cates, page 44
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Portrait - NPG D36591; Sir George de Lacy Evans". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  • Adkin, Mark (2001). The Waterloo Companion. Aurum. ISBN 1-85410-764-X
  • Barbero, Alessandro (2005). The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-84354-310-9
  • George, Christopher T., Terror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay, Shippensburg, Pa., White Mane, 2001, ISBN 1-57249-276-7
  • Spiers, Edward M (1983). Radical General : Sir George de Lacy Evans, 1787-1870, Manchester, U.K., Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-0929-4
  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "article name needed". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
  • de Lacy Evans' grave at historyhome.co.uk

Further reading

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Philip Pusey
Richard Arkwright
Member of Parliament for Rye
May 1830 – August 1830
With: Richard Arkwright
Succeeded by
Hugh Duncan Baillie
Francis Robert Bonham
Preceded by
Hugh Duncan Baillie
Francis Robert Bonham
Member of Parliament for Rye
18311832
With: Thomas Pemberton
Succeeded by
Edward Barrett Curteis
Preceded by
Sir Francis Burdett and
Sir John Hobhouse
Member of Parliament for Westminster
18331841
With: Francis Burdett, to 1837
John Temple Leader, from 1837
Succeeded by
John Temple Leader and
Henry John Rous