John Carnac

Brigadier-General John Carnac ( – 29 November 1800) was a British officer who served three times as Commander-in-Chief of India.

Early life John Carnac was baptised in London on 12 April 1721. He was the son of Captain Peter Carnac (1665–1756), and Andrienne, née Lelonte (died ). Later in his life, Carnac still corresponded with his family and their friends in French.

Military career

John Carnac voyaged to India as a lieutenant in the 39th Regiment in 1754 and served at Madras as secretary and aide-de-camp to the colonel of the regiment, John Adlercron.

By 1773 Carnac was short of money and he returned to India as a member of the Council at Bombay. He was dismissed from the East India Company for his involvement in the Convention of Wadgaon in 1779 and died at Mangalore in November 1800. who had been an MP and Mayor of Derby. A 1775–76 portrait of Mrs. Carnac by Sir Joshua Reynolds hangs in the Wallace Collection in London; with a proof impression at the British Museum.

John Carnac's last will and testament made his brother-in-law James Rivett his heir, provided that he assumed the additional name of Carnac, which he did in 1801. Two of James's sons became famous: Sir James Rivett-Carnac, 1st Bt, became a Governor of Bombay Presidency, while Admiral John Rivett-Carnac became an early explorer of Australia, where Carnac Island was named in his honor by Captain James Stirling when Rivett-Carnac was first lieutenant on on the Swan River expedition of 1827.