Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The important Peninsula War medal awarded to General Sir Howard Douglas, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Colonel of the 15th (East Yorkshire) Regiment of Foot, later Governor of New Brunswick and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Corunna (Sir H. Douglas, Bart. G.C.B. Asst. Qr. Mr. Genl.) contained in an old fitted case, nearly extremely fine £4000-5000

General Sir Howard Douglas was born at Gosport in 1776, son of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Douglas, first Baronet. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and entered the Royal Artillery as Second Lieutenant in January 1794. As a subaltern of nineteen years of age he commanded the artillery of the northern district during the invasion alarms rife there after the return of the troops from Bremen in the spring of 1795. In August the same year he embarked for Quebec as senior officer of a detachment of troops on board the Phillis transport, which was cast away at the entrance of the St. Lawrence. The sufferings of the survivors were intensified by their failure to reach a settlement, and an attempted mutiny of the soldiers, which was stopped by the resolute conduct of Douglas. The castaways were rescued by a trader and carried to Great Jervis, a remote unvisited fishing station of Labrador, where they passed the winter. Subsequently they were rescued and carried to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Douglas served three months, thence proceeding to Quebec, where he remained a year, during which time he was employed in command of a small cruiser, scouring for the French fleet said to be making for Quebec. In 1797 he was detached to Kingston, Upper Canada, where he passed two years chiefly hunting and fishing among the Indians, and was employed by the Canadian government on a mission to the Cherokees. On one occasion he skated all the way from Montreal to Quebec to attend a ball, a feat which cost the life of a brother-officer who accompanied him. Douglas returned home in 1799, and his ready seamanship saved the timber-laden vessel in which he made the voyage.

Douglas became a Captain-Lieutenant in the artillery in October, 1799, and served variously in the 5th battalion of Artillery, with one of the newly formed troops of Horse Artillery, and with Congreve's Mortar brigade. He became a Captain in 1804 but retired from the Artillery in October of that year, being placed on half pay of the York Rangers, where he remained until promoted to the rank of Major General.

In 1808 Douglas was appointed Assistant Quarter Master General in Spain, and was sent out with despatches to Sir John Moore. He joined the retreating army in December at Benevente, and was present at the battle of Corunna, 18th January, 1809. In the following July he accompanied the Walcheren expedition in the same capacity and took an active part in the artillery attack on Flushing. The same year he succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his elder half brother, Vice Admiral Sir William Henry Douglas. In 1811 Douglas was selected by Lord Liverpool to proceed to the north of Spain to inspect and report on the state of the Spanish armies in Galicia and Asturias, and on the military resources of that part of the country then not wholly occupied by the French, and to report in what way these resources, regular and irregular, including the guerilla system, which had become very formidable, should be encouraged and extended. After conferring with Lord Wellington he proceeded on his mission, and was present at the operations on the Orbigo and Esta, in the combined naval and military operations of the Spaniards and a British naval squadron under Sir Home Popham the younger, on the north coast of Spain in the early part of 1812, in the attack on and reduction of Lequertio, siege of Astorga, operations on the Douro, siege of Zamorra and attack on the ports of the Douro. He joined the army on the advance to Burgos at the end of August, 1812, and appears to have predicted the failure of the siege but did not await the result, the home government having recalled him from the mission.

A detailed account of Howard’s services during 1811-12, gathering intelligence through a network of spies, and his close work with the Spanish army and the guerilla forces in Gallicia, will be found in The Life of General Sir Howard Douglas, published in 1863. The following is a short extract:

‘The guerilla successes exasperated the French, who resorted to the severest reprisals, and the peasants returned from their forays to find their homes devastated and their wives and daughters dishonoured and sometimes butchered. These atrocities were so common that they are mentioned as things of course by the guerilla chiefs in their despatches to Sir Howard. But he relates one enormity that drove them to madness, and excites a shudder even at this distance of time. The French desired to occupy a monastery commanding a strong pass, but admission was denied by the monks, who made a stout resistance. They were overcome, and the French punished their temerity by roasting several of them, and putting the rest to the sword. A party of the French afterwards fell into the hands of the guerillas, who obtained possession of an immense oven constructed for the use of a regiment, and baked them alive. Such are the horrors of invasion!’

From 1823 to 1832 Douglas was Governor of New Brunswick, where he founded the university of Fredricton, and displayed great firmness and tact in checking the American encroachment on the Maine frontier in 1828. He was made G.C.M.G. in 1835 on his appointment as Lord High Commissioner of the lonian Islands, which he held until 1840, during which time he introduced a new code of laws known as the Douglas Code. He became a Lieutenant General in 1837 and in 1841 was made Colonel of the 99th Foot. He was transferred to the Colonelcy of the 15th Foot in 1851, in which year he became a General. He sat for five years as M.P. for Liverpool as a supporter of Sir Robert Peel. Douglas had been made a C.B. in 1815, K.C.B. in 1840, and G.C.B., Civil Division, in 1841. Shortly before his death Palmerston offered Douglas the Military G.C.B., but he declined, saying he was “too old for such vanities.” He also had the Grand Cordon of Charles III of Spain, and the Peninsula medal for Corunna. During his lifetime he published numerous books and papers on Military and Naval matters. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Geographical Society, and received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from Oxford University. Sir Howard Douglas died at Tunbridge Wells on 9th November, 1861 at the age of 85 years.