Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey

Lieutenant-General Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey, ( 23 October 1729 – 14 November 1807) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He served in the American War of Independence, rising to Commander-in-Chief, North America. Following the Battle of Paoli in 1777, Grey became known as "No-Flint Grey" for reportedly ordering his men to extract the flints from their muskets during a night approach and to fight with bayonets only. In 1782, he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed as Commander-in-Chief, North America. Grey subsequently served in the French Revolutionary Wars, leading the capture of Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1794. He served as the governor of Guernsey from 1797 until his death in 1807. He was the third son of Sir Henry Grey, 1st Baronet, of Howick and his wife Lady Hannah Grey (née Wood), daughter of Thomas Wood of Fallodon in Northumberland. Because he had two older brothers, Grey did not expect to inherit his father's titles and estates, so he pursued a career in the army. His two older brothers Sir Henry and Thomas both died without issue, leaving him as the viable heir. He soon went to Scotland with the Sixth Regiment to suppress the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Following victory there, the Sixth Regiment spent the next few years in Gibraltar. In December 1752, he purchased a lieutenancy in the Sixth Regiment. In March 1755, he formed a new independent company and became their captain. Two months later, he purchased a captaincy in the 20th Regiment of Foot (subsequently titled 'East Devonshire Regiment', and in 1881 the Lancashire Fusiliers), in which James Wolfe served as lieutenant colonel. In 1757, while with Wolfe's regiment, he participated in the unsuccessful attack on Rochefort. In 1806, he was created Earl Grey and Viscount Howick, in the County of Northumberland. He died the next year, at the age of 78.

Grey and his wife brought up Eliza Courtney, the child their son Charles had with the married Duchess of Devonshire in 1792.

Arms