John Rowland Smyth

Lieutenant-General Sir John Rowland Smyth (1803 – 14 May 1873) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army who saw service in British India.

Early life and education Smyth was born at Ballynatray House, Templemichael, County Waterford, the fifth and youngest son of Grice Smyth and his wife, Mary Brodrick Mitchell. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.

He had three sisters, including Gertrude, who married William Hughes, 1st Baron Dinorben, and Penelope, who eloped with HRH Prince Charles of the Two Sicilies, Prince of Capua.

Promoted to Major on 17 August 1841, he returned to the 16th Lancers on 6 May 1842 and served with it during the Gwalior campaign and First Anglo-Sikh War. At the Battle of Aliwal, Smyth led the 16th Lancers to rout the Sikh cavalry and break a square of infantry; he was mentioned in dispatches and made a brevet Lieutenant-Colonel.

After a series of promotions and successes he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 13 March 1867, promoted to Lieutenant-General on 1 April 1870, and became Colonel of the 6th Dragoon Guards on 21 January 1868. They had a daughter, Penelope Mary Gertrude, who in 1859 married her cousin Charles Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden.