Norcliffe Norcliffe

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Major-General

Norcliffe Norcliffe

KH
Major (later Major-General, Sir) Norcliffe Norcliffe.jpg
Norcliffe Norcliffe c.1845
Born24 September 1791
Died8 February 1862, age 70
London
Buried
Kensal Green Cemetery
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1807–1823 (active)
RankMajor-General
Unit4th Dragoons
17th Lancers
18th Hussars
Battles/wars
AwardsKnight of the Royal Guelphic Order
Army Gold Medal
Spouse(s)
Decima Hester Beatrix Foulis
​
​
(m. 1824⁠–⁠1828)​

Major-General Norcliffe Norcliffe KH (24 September 1791–8 February 1862) was a British Army officer and landowner. Having joined the 4th Dragoons in 1807 he fought with them in the Peninsular War. He was severely wounded in the head during the Battle of Salamanca but survived. After the war he continued in the army, transferring to the 17th Lancers and then the 18th Hussars before going on half pay as a major. Norcliffe continued to purchase promotions and became a major-general in 1855. He inherited the Langton Hall estate from his mother in 1835 but chose to live more in London. He died there at the age of 70 in 1862.

Life

Military career

Norcliffe Norcliffe was born on 24 September 1791, the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Dalton and Anne née Wilson.[Note 1] Dalton changed his surname to Norcliffe in August 1807 upon inheriting the Langton Hall estate from his maternal uncle.[2][3] Norcliffe joined the British Army on 5 February 1807, aged sixteen, as an cornet in the 4th Dragoons.[4] He was promoted to lieutenant on 30 April 1808 and served with his regiment in the Peninsular War from April 1809.[5][3][6][4]

Norcliffe subsequently fought at the Battle of Talavera on 27 July, and then the Battle of Busaco on 27 September 1810, the Battle of Albuera on 16 May 1811, and the Battle of Usagre on 25 May of the same year.[7] He was then severely wounded in the head at the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812.[5][3][8] Having almost been left for dead on the battlefield, Norcliffe was found by British soldiers and brought in for treatment, with it for a while being thought that he would die from his wounds.[Note 2] He was nursed back to health by his cousin Mrs Dalbiac, who was the wife of Norcliffe's commanding officer.[Note 3] Norcliffe then continued in the Iberian Peninsula until November. With the Napoleonic Wars over, Norcliffe stay in the army and was promoted to captain on 29 February 1816.[3][11][4] For his services in the Napoleonic Wars he received the Army Gold Medal with four clasps.[7]

Norcliffe was promoted to major on 20 August 1821, and then transferred to the 17th Lancers on 20 December.[5][3][12][13] Norcliffe transferred again on 22 May 1823, this time to the 18th Hussars.[5][3][14] The 18th had in fact been disbanded in 1821, and Norcliffe had transferred to them to go on half pay for what he described as "peculiar private motives". Norcliffe spent the rest of his army career on half pay, continuing to buy his promotions.[5] He became a lieutenant-colonel on 10 January 1837 and a colonel on 11 November 1851, before being promoted by seniority to major-general on 31 August 1855.[5][3][15][16][4] The National Army Museum suggests that Norcliffe stayed in the army despite not actively serving past 1823 because the commissions kept their value and could be used as an investment.[5] He was created a Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1836.[2]

Family and retirement

Living in semi-retirement, Norcliffe inherited Langton Hall from his mother in 1835, but chose to mostly live in London while also travelling widely in North America and Europe.[2][5][17] One of Norcliffe's nieces was the artist Mary Ellen Best, with whom he was very close. She painted a number of scenes of life at Langton Hall, including some of Norcliffe, portrayed in his study surrounded by Napoleonic Wars memorabilia and in the dining room having breakfast with his extended family.[17][18]

A carte-de-visite portrait of Norcliffe in 1861

Norcliffe married Decima Hester Beatrix Foulis in York on 24 June 1824. The couple had a son, Thomas, in 1825, who died unmarried in 1849.[2][5] Norcliffe's wife herself had died in 1828 and Norcliffe was left without a direct heir. He died in London on 8 February 1862 after an illness of three days, age 70.[2][5][9] He was succeeded by his niece Rosamond Robinson, Best's elder sister, who changed her surname to Norcliffe by Royal License.[2][5][19][3] Norcliffe was buried next to his son in Kensal Green Cemetery.[9]

Notes and citations

Notes

  1. ^ Norcliffe had six younger siblings, two brothers and four sisters. His two brothers died young, and it was his third sister, Mary, who would go on to marry and produce Norcliffe's eventual heir.[1]
  2. ^ Other sources state that Norcliffe was taken prisoner after being wounded.[7][9]
  3. ^ The 4th Dragoons were a popular regiment for Norcliffe's family, with several of his cousins serving in the regiment during the Napoleonic Wars.[10]

Citations

  1. ^ Urban (1862), p. 502.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Norcliffe, Norcliffe (1791 -1862)". British Armorial Bindings. University of Toronto Libraries. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Urban (1862), p. 501.
  4. ^ a b c d Bromley & Bromley (2015), p. 127.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Major (later Major-General, Sir) Norcliffe Norcliffe, 18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars), 1845 (c)". National Army Museum. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  6. ^ "No. 16140". The London Gazette. 26 April 1808. p. 582.
  7. ^ a b c Hart (1860), p. 25.
  8. ^ The Annual Register (1863), p. 383.
  9. ^ a b c Frecker, Paul. "Major-General Norcliffe Norcliffe". The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  10. ^ Howard (1880), p. 439.
  11. ^ "No. 17117". The London Gazette. 9 March 1816. p. 450.
  12. ^ "No. 17778". The London Gazette. 1 January 1822. p. 1.
  13. ^ "No. 17740". The London Gazette. 25 August 1821. p. 1739.
  14. ^ "No. 17927". The London Gazette. 31 May 1823. p. 874.
  15. ^ "No. 21773". The London Gazette. 31 August 1855. p. 3287.
  16. ^ "No. 6125". The Edinburgh Gazette. 14 November 1851. p. 1034.
  17. ^ a b Davidson (1985), p. 31.
  18. ^ Davidson (1985), p. 28.
  19. ^ "No. 22624". The London Gazette. 9 May 1862. p. 2430.

References

  • Bromley, Janet; Bromley, David (2015). Wellington's Men Remembered. Vol. 2. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: The Praetorian Press. ISBN 978-1-84884-750-7.
  • Davidson, Caroline (1985). The World of Mary Ellen Best. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0-7011-2905-0.
  • Hart, H. G. (1860). The New Annual Army List. London: John Murray.
  • Howard, Joseph Jackson Howard (1880). Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica. Vol. 3. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
  • The Annual Register. London: J. & F. H. Rivington. 1863.
  • Urban, Sylvanus (1862). The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. 212, Iss. 4. London: John Henry and James Parker.
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