Thomas Grosvenor

Field Marshal Thomas Grosvenor (30 May 1764 – 20 January 1851) was a British Army officer. After serving as a junior officer defending the Bank of England during the Gordon Riots he took part in the Flanders Campaign including the retreat into Germany during the French Revolutionary Wars. He served as a brigade commander at the Battle of Copenhagen and was then deployed to Walcheren in the Netherlands where he served as deputy commander of a division led by Sir Eyre Coote during the disastrous Walcheren Campaign.

Military career

Early career Born the third son of Thomas Grosvenor (1734–1795) and Deborah (née Skynner) Grosvenor, he was educated at Westminster School and commissioned into the 1st Foot Guards on 1 October 1779.

He was in charge of security at the Bank of England during the Gordon Riots in 1780.

Grosvenor succeeded his father as Whig Member of Parliament for Chester in 1795.

He took part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in August 1799 and was promoted to brigadier-general while serving under Sir Ralph Abercromby in Holland on 18 November 1800. In parliament he opposed the bill against bull-baiting introduced in 1802. However, in Autumn 1809 he was deployed to Walcheren in the Netherlands where he served as deputy commander of a division led by Eyre Coote during the disastrous Walcheren Campaign which ended in failure when many of the British troops died of malaria.

Later career Grosvenor was promoted to full general on 12 August 1819. In 1820 he had a fortunate escape during the Cato Street Conspiracy when an angry mob overturned his carriage into the River Dee. Around the same time he started renting the Warren House in Loughton, probably as it was on the way to Newmarket Racecourse. He stood down as Member of Parliament for Chester in 1826 to make way for his cousin's son, Robert Grosvenor, and instead became Member of Parliament for Stockbridge. and died at his home, Mount Ararat at Richmond Hill on 20 June 1851.

Family In 1797 Grosvenor married Elizabeth Heathcote (daughter of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 3rd Baronet); after the death of his first wife he married Anne Wilbraham (daughter of George Wilbraham MP) in 1831. There were no children from either marriage.