Thomas Adams

Thomas Adams (1730 – January 1764), was a British Army major, posthumously promoted to Brigadier-general based on account of his defence of the British position in Bengal in 1763.

Biography Adams began military service in 1747 as a volunteer under the command of the Duke of Cumberland in the Netherlands. On 25 June that year he obtained a commission as ensign in the 37th Foot, and rose to the rank of captain nine years later. Transferred to the 84th Foot, and serving as a major in India, in 1762, he was appointed to the command of the united forces of the crown and of the East India Company in Bengal.

After the Battle of Plassey, British power was by no means complete. Mir Qasim, the minister and son-in-law of Mir Jafar, had displaced his master and had been invested as Nawab of Bengal at Patna. The Calcutta council was unscrupulous, the Nawab was deprived of revenue, and the reputation of the British had suffered. The forces of the latter numbered 40,000 men, including 25,000 infantry trained and disciplined on the European system, and a regiment of excellent artillerymen well supplied with guns. To oppose this force, Major Adams had under his command a small body of troops, variously estimated from 2,300 to 3,000, of whom only 850 were Europeans. His artillery also was inferior to that of the enemy. The campaign commenced on 2 July 1763, and lasted for four months, in the course of which Adams fought four actions, took two considerable forts and nearly 500 pieces of cannon, and defeated the most powerful Bengali army that up to that time had confronted the British in India. Adams followed Qasim's remaining sepoys for a few more days and then returned to Calcutta having conquered the whole of Bengal in just a few months.

At the close of the campaign, Major Adams was compelled by ill-health to resign his command and died at Calcutta in January 1764. As soon as the intelligence of the campaign reached England, Adams was advanced to the rank of brigadier-general, but he had already been dead for some months when his commission was issued.