Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lovell, Lovell Benjamin Badcock
LOVELL, Sir LOVELL BENJAMIN BADCOCK (formerly Badcock) (1786–1861), major-general, a descendant of Sir Salathiel Lovell [q. v.], was born in 1786. He was eldest son of Stanhope Badcock of Little Missenden Hall and Maplethorpe Hall, Buckinghamshire, who served in the American revolutionary war as a subaltern in the 6th foot, and with the royal Bucks militia in Ireland in 1798. His mother was the daughter of William Buckle of Mythe Hall and Chasely, Gloucestershire. Educated at Eton, he was on 18 Dec. 1805 appointed cornet in the 4th light dragoons (now hussars), in which he became lieutenant 19 May 1808, and captain 12 Dec. 1811. He served in the expedition to Monte Video in 1807, on the staff of Sir Samuel Auchmuty [q. v.] Landing with his regiment in Portugal in December 1808, he served with it throughout the Peninsular campaign of 1809–14, most of the time with the light division. He was present at Talavera, the Coa, Fuentes d'Onoro (where he was wounded), Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse, in all ten general actions, and including seven sieges, forty other affairs, great and small. In 1811 he appears to have been much employed on the left of the army as an unpaid intelligence officer, and was strongly recommended by Wellington for promotion (Gurwood, Well. Desp. iv. 306, v. 13). After the war Badcock was given a brevet majority (21 Jan. 1819) for his Peninsular services, and subsequently received the Peninsular medal with eleven clasps (Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse). On 28 Oct. 1824 he was brought into the 8th light dragoons (now hussars), after the return of that regiment from India, and on 21 Nov. 1826 obtained a lieutenant-colonelcy, half-pay unattached. He was one of the military reporters under Lord William Russell at the siege of Oporto, and during the Miguelite war in Portugal. After his return he published a small volume of ‘Rough Leaves from a Journal in Spain and Portugal in 1832, '33, and '34,’ London, 1835. On 21 March 1834 he exchanged to the command of the 15th hussars with Lord Brudenell, afterwards Earl of Cardigan. In 1835 he was made K.H. In 1839 he took the 15th hussars out to Madras. In 1840, together with his brother, Captain William Stanhope Badcock, K.H., royal navy, he assumed the surname of Lovell under royal sign manual. He became brevet-colonel 23 Nov. 1841. On 8 March 1850 he exchanged from the 15th hussars to half-pay 11th hussars. He became major-general 20 June 1854, and in 1856 was made K.C.B., and appointed colonel of the 12th royal lancers. He died at Brunswick Terrace, Brighton, 11 March 1861, aged 75.
[Dod's Knightage, 1860; Hart's Army Lists; Gent. Mag. 1861, i. 473.]