b. 1782
d. 1871-10-07
Sir John Fox Burgoyne was the illegitimate son of Lieut. General the Right Hon. John
Burgoyne and Miss Susan Caulfield. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, before joining
the Royal Engineers in 1798. He saw service in Malta, Sicily, and Egypt before being appointed commanding engineer
of the reserve division in Portugal. He served with
Wellington in the Penninsular War from 1809 to 1814, and with General Edward Pakenham in the
disastrous Louisiana campaign of the War of 1812 in 1814-1815.
He then was commander of the Royal Engineers that occupied France from 1815 to 1818,
the detachment at Chatham from 1821 to 1826, in Portugal in 1826, and at Portsmouth
from 1828 to 1831. In 1831 he became chairman of the Board of Public Works in Ireland, remaining in
that post for fifteen years. He was promoted to the rank of major-general, 28 June 1838, and was knighted the
same year.
In 1845 he was appointed inspector-general of fortifications, a position he held until
his retirement in 1868. Burgoyne received many additional honours in his very distinguished career, including
a GCB in
1852, a baronetcy, the freedom of the city of
London, and an honorary degree (DCL) from Oxford University in 1856. He died in
London on 7 October 1871.
- 1. John Sweetman, Burgoyne, Sir John Fox, Oxford DIctionary of National Biography.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Ibid.
- 7. Ibid.
- 8. Ibid.
- 9. Ibid.
- 10. Ibid.