1 Jan. 1812. He commanded the attack on La Picurina during the last siege of Badajoz (ib. v. 561), and led Picton's assault on the castle of Badajoz, on the night of 6 April 1812, but was very severely wounded early in the attack (ib. v. 577–8). On recovering from his wound, he rejoined the army in the Peninsula, and commanded a brigade of the light division (43rd and two battalions 95th rifles) in the campaigns of 1813–14 at Vittoria, the combat of Vera, and the battles of Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse (ib. vii. 50, 135). At Nivelle, where he was wounded in the attack on La Petite Rhune, but remained in the field, he commanded one of the brigades despatched from Bordeaux, 6 June 1814, to Quebec, to reinforce the army in Canada. He was made K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815, and was advanced to G.C.B. 22 June 1815. He commanded the 8th brigade (28th, 32nd, 79th), forming part of Picton's division at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and, on Picton's fall, succeeded to the command of the division (ib. viii. 147–50), which he held with the army in France. He was appointed lieutenant-governor of Portsmouth in 1819, and afterwards held the governorship of Nova Scotia until 1828. From 10 July 1828 to 24 Nov. 1830 he was governor-general of Canada. His conduct during a period of political difficulty was commended by the Duke of Wellington; on 8 Dec. 1830 he was nominated a privy councillor. He was afterwards master-general of the ordnance from 1834 to 1838.
Kempt became G.C.H. in 1816; had the foreign orders of Maria Theresa in Austria, St. George in Russia, and William the Lion in the Netherlands; a gold cross and clasps for Maida, Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse; the silver medal with bars for Egypt and Pyrenees, and the Waterloo medal. He held the lieutenant-governorship of Fort William, Inverness, from 1812, and was in succession colonel-commandant 60th foot in 1813, and colonel of the 3rd West India regiment 1819, of the 81st foot 1819, of the 40th foot 1829, of the 2nd queen's 1837, and of the 1st royals 1846. He became a lieutenant-general in 1825, and general in 1841. He died in South Audley Street, London, 20 Dec. 1854, aged 90. He was a man of rather small stature and quiet, unassuming manners, was an excellent and popular officer, and a clever man.
[Dod's Knightage, 1854; Philippart's Royal Military Calendar, 1820, iii. 193; Army Lists and Gazettes under dates; Bunbury's Narrative of Passages in the late War (London, 1854); Napier's Hist. Peninsular War (rev. ed. 1851), and Cope's Rifle Brigade, period 1812–14; Siborne's Waterloo; Ross-Lewin's Life of a Soldier (London, 1830), vol. ii., account of Waterloo campaign; Gurwood's Wellington Desp. vols. v–viii.; Wellington Supplementary Desp. vols. viii–xiv. and xv. (index); military documents and returns catalogued in Reports on Canadian Archives (Ottawa, 1882–90); Henry's Events of a Military Life (London, 1843), ii. 149 et seq.; Gent. Mag. new ser. 1855, xliii. 188.]
KEMPTHORNE, Sir JOHN (1620–1679), vice-admiral, son of John Kempthorne, an attorney at Modbury, Devonshire, and afterwards lieutenant of horse for Charles II, was born in 1620. He served his apprenticeship to the sea with the master of a Topsham vessel, and continued for many years sailing from Exeter and other ports of the west country. Afterwards he would seem to have entered the service of the Levant Company, and to have commanded ships trading to the Mediterranean. In 1649 he married a young person described as ‘belonging to Sir Thomas Bendish's lady, ambassador in Turkey.’ In 1657 he commanded a ship, apparently the Eastland Merchant, which was captured by a noted Spanish cruiser Papachino (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 10 Sept. 1657, 11 Nov. 1658), but was shortly afterwards released and sent home. Papachino himself was captured the next year by a small squadron under Captain Bonn of the Phœnix; he was brought to England and committed to the Tower, from which, a year later, he was exchanged (ib. 9 March 1659, 2 April 1660), probably through the good offices of Kempthorne (Campbell, ii. 261). The story, as related by Campbell, is inaccurate in details.
Kempthorne, at this time a man of substance and repute, was a brother of the Trinity House (Eg. MS. 928, f. 1). In 1664 he entered the king's service, and was appointed captain of the Kent, from which he was moved in the course of the same year to the Dunkirk, and afterwards to the Royal James as flag-captain to Prince Rupert. After the battle of 3 June 1665 he was appointed to the Old James, whose captain, the Earl of Marlborough, had been killed; and the following year he was flag-captain to the Duke of Albemarle, on board the Royal Charles, in the four days' fight off the North Foreland. He was immediately afterwards appointed by the duke and Prince Rupert to be rear-admiral of the blue squadron, and as such, with his flag in the Defiance, took part in the battle of 27 July 1666. In April 1667, still in the Defiance, he commanded a squadron at Lisbon, and, coming home in June, had joined Sir Thomas Allin in the Sound, when they received
