Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gore, Charles Stephen

1200269Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 22 — Gore, Charles Stephen1890Henry Manners Chichester

GORE, Sir CHARLES STEPHEN (1793–1869), general, colonel 6th foot, lieutenant-governor of Chelsea Hospital, a son of Arthur Gore, second earl of Arran, by his third wife, Elizabeth Underwood, was born on 26 Dec. 1793, and entered the service as cornet 16th light dragoons in October 1808, and was transferred as ensign to the 6th foot and 43rd foot. His subsequent commissions were lieutenant, January 1810; captain, March 1815; major, January 1819; lieutenant-colonel, September 1822; colonel, January 1837; major-general, November 1846; lieutenant-general, June 1854; colonel 6th foot, March 1861; general, February 1863. He joined the 43rd in the Peninsula in July 1811, and was one of the storming party of Fort San Francisco, at the investment of Ciudad Rodrigo, also at the siege and storming of that fortress and of Badajoz. He was aide-de-camp to Sir Andrew Barnard at the battle of Salamanca, and to Sir James Kempt at the battles of Vittoria, Nivelle, the Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse, and was present at all the affairs in which the light division was engaged from 1812 till the end of the war. As aide-de-camp he accompanied Sir James Kempt to Canada in 1814, but returned to Europe with him in time for the Waterloo campaign, where Kempt was second in command of, and succeeded to, Picton's division. Gore had a horse killed under him at Quatre Bras, and three horses at Waterloo. He was present also at the capture of Paris and with the army of occupation in France. He was deputy quartermaster-general in Jamaica at the time of the negro emancipation, and in Canada during the disturbances of 1838–9.

Gore was G.C.B. and K.H., and had received the Peninsular medal with nine clasps and the Waterloo medal. He was successively colonel of the 91st and 6th foot. He married, on 13 May 1824, Sarah Rachel, daughter of the Hon. James Fraser, member of the legislative council of Nova Scotia, by whom he left issue. Gore died at the lieutenant-governor's residence, Chelsea Hospital, on 4 Sept. 1869, aged 76. His widow died in 1880.

[Foster's Peerage, under ‘Arran;’ Hart's and other Army Lists.]

H. M. C.