Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Douglas, Neil (1779-1853)

1246112Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 15 — Douglas, Neil (1779-1853)1888Henry Morse Stephens ‎

DOUGLAS, Sir NEIL (1779–1853), lieutenant-general, was the fifth son of John Douglas, a merchant of Glasgow, and a descendant of the Douglases, earls of Angus, through the Douglases of Cruxton and Stobbs. He entered the army as a second lieutenant in the 95th regiment, afterwards the Rifle Brigade, on 28 Jan. 1801. He was promoted lieutenant on 16 July 1802, and captain into the 79th regiment (the Cameron Highlanders), with which he served during the rest of his military career, on 19 April 1804. He first saw service in the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, and then accompanied his regiment with Sir John Moore to Sweden and Portugal. He served throughout Sir John Moore's retreat and in the battle of Corunna, in the expedition to the Walcheren and at the siege of Flushing in 1809, and in the Peninsula from December 1809 till his promotion to the rank of major on 31 Jan. 1811. The only great battle in the Peninsula at which he was present during this period was Busaco, where he was shot through the left arm and shoulder, and he had to leave the Peninsula on promotion to join the second battalion of his regiment. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 3 Dec. 1812, and in the following April rejoined the first battalion in the Peninsula. He commanded this battalion, which was attached to the second brigade of Cole's division, in the battles of the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive, and Toulouse, and was at the end of the war rewarded with a gold cross for these three victories. In the following year the regiment was reduced to one battalion, which Douglas commanded at Quatre Bras, where he was wounded in the right knee, and at Waterloo. For this campaign he was made a C.B., and also received a pension of 300l. a year for his wounds. He continued to command his regiment for twenty-two years until he became a major-general, and during that period many distinctions were conferred upon him. In 1825 he was promoted colonel and appointed an aide-de-camp to the king; in 1831 he was knighted and made a K.C.H. and given the royal license to wear the orders of Maria Theresa and St. Wladimir, which had been conferred upon him for his services at Waterloo; and in 1837 he was made a K.C.B. He was further promoted to the rank of major-general in June 1838, lieutenant-general on 9 Nov. 1846, made colonel in 1845 of the 81st regiment, from which he was transferred to the 72nd regiment in 1847, and to his old regiment, the 78th, in 1851. He died on 1 Sept. 1853 at Brussels. Douglas married in 1816 the daughter of George Robertson, banker of Greenock, by whom he was the father of General Sir John Douglas, G.C.B., who was a distinguished commander in India during the suppression of the Indian mutiny.

[Hart's Army List; Gent. Mag. October 1853.]

H. M. S.