Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/67

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O'Hara
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O'Hara

Minorca 1709-13, and he was probably governor of that island. In January 1711 the tory party in the House of Lords, in order to cement their alliance with Peterborough, summoned Galway and Tyrawley to answer for the mismanagement of the war in Spain in 1707. Tyrawley 'stood upon the reserve,' and said that 'when he was in the army he kept no register, and carried neither pen nor ink about him, but only a sword' (Boyer, p. 485). On 9 Jan. Galway produced his 'Narrative,' and on Peterborough's making adverse statements, Tyrawley demanded to know, before he made any explanations, whether he was accused or not. The opposition raised a debate as to his right to an answer. Peterborough disclaimed any wish to accuse him, and Tyrawley then gave a short account, supporting Galway. On a resolution being passed declaring the three generals responsible for the offensive operations and for the disaster at Almanza, Galway and Tyrawley petitioned (11 Jan.) for time to produce answers, and the whig peers recorded two strong protests in their favour; but no further steps were taken (Rogers, Protests of the Lord, i. clxix, clxx).

On 6 Nov. 1714 Tyrawley, having resigned his colonelcy to his son, was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, where he raised a regiment of foot in 1715. This post he retained till 1721. He was some time governor of the Royal Hospital near Dublin. He died on 8 or 9 June 1724, and was buried on 11 June in the chancel-vault of St. Mary's, Dublin.

Tyrawley had married Frances, daughter of Gervase Rouse of Rouse-Lench, Worcester, who survived him, and died on 10 Nov. 1738. He left, besides his son James [q. v.], a daughter Mary, who died in 1759 (Burke, Extinct Peerage). He is described as a man of 'a good understanding, a large fund of learning, and fit to command an army' (Lodge, l.c.) Some official letters by him are preserved among the Tyrawley Papers (Addit. MSS. 1854-60, pp. 876-8), and also among the Ellis Papers (Addit. MS. 28946).

[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vol. iv.; Stanhope's War of the Succession in Spain; Parnell's War of the Succession in Spain; Cannon's Historical Records of the British Army, 7th Foot; Parl. Hist. vi. 938 seq.; Burnet's Hist, of Own Time; Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, 1735; Townsend's Cat of Knights; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

H. E. D. B.

O'HARA, CHARLES (1740?–1802), general, governor of Gibraltar, born about 1740, illegitimate son of James O'Hara, second lord Tyrawley, was educated at Westminster School, and was appointed to a cornetcy in the 3rd dragoons (now hussars), 23 Dec. 1752. On 14 Jan. 1756 he was appointed lieutenant and captain in the Coldstream guards, of which James O'Hara was colonel. He was aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Granby [see Manners, John, 1721-1770] in Germany, after the battle of Minden, and, with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel, was quarter-master-general of the troops under Lord Tyrawley in Portugal in the short but sharp campaign of 1762. On 26 July 1766 he was appointed commandant at Goree, Senegal, and lieutenant-colonel-commandant of the African corps, formed at that time of military delinquents pardoned on condition of their accepting life-service in Africa. He held three posts without detriment to his promotion in the Coldstream guards, in which he became captain and lieutenant-colonel in 1769, and vacated them on promotion to brevet colonel in 1779. He served in America, as brigadier-general commanding the brigade of guards, from October 1780; distinguished himself at the passage of the Catawba on 1 Feb. 1781, and received two dangerous wounds at the battle of Guilford Courthouse on 15 March following. He was with the troops under Cornwallis that surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, 19 Oct. 1781 (MacKinnon, ii. 11, 14). Cornwallis wrote of him: 'His zealous services under my command, the pains he took, and the success he met with in reconciling the guards to every kind of hardship, give him a just claim, independent of old friendship, on my very strongest recommendations in his favour' (Cornwallis' Correspondence, i. 183). O'Hara remained a prisoner in America until 9 Feb. 1782, when he was exchanged. He had in the meantime become a major-general. On 18 March 1782 he received the colonelcy of the 22nd foot, and in May following was given command of the reinforcements sent from New York to Jamaica. Subsequently he returned home, and in 1784 Cornwallis expressed regret that 'poor O'Hara is once more driven abroad by his relentless creditors' (ib. i. 155). O'Hara, who was the intimate personal friend of Horace Walpole and Henry Seymour Conway [q. v.], went to Italy, where he became acquainted, with Miss Mary Berry [q. v.], who was staying with the Conways at Home, and to whom he afterwards became engaged. He appears to have been a major-general on the staff at Gibraltar from 1787 to 1790. Horace Walpole speaks of him as at home at the latter date, 'with his face as ruddy and black and his teeth as white as ever (Walpole, Letters, ix. 303), and alludes to his having been 'shamefully treated,' probably in not obtaining the lieu-