The rank of general in the army was conferred on SIR HENRY CLINTON in 1793; he held the government of Limerick; and in 1795 he was appointed governor of Gibraltar. He was many years a member of parliament; and was also groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of Gloucester. His decease occurred on the 23rd of December, 1795.
DAVID DUNDAS was one of the most distinguished officers of the age in which he lived, for his perfect knowledge of the principles of military tactics. He commenced his military education at the age of thirteen in the academy at Woolwich, and at fifteen he assisted in a survey of Scotland; in 1756 obtained a commission in the fifty-sixth regiment. In 1758 he proceeded with the expedition to the coast of France as an assistant quarter-master-general; and in the following year obtained the command of a troop in a newly-raised regiment of light dragoons (Eliott's light horse), now the fifteenth, or King's hussars. He served with his regiment in Germany in 1760 and 1761; in the following summer he accompanied an expedition to Cuba, as aide-de-camp to Major-General Eliott, and was actively employed in the reduction of the Havannah. After the peace he resumed his post in his regiment, in which he rose to the rank of major; and, urged by an ardent desire to acquire a perfect knowledge of every branch of his profession, he obtained permission to proceed to the continent, to observe the practice of the French and Austrian armies. In 1775 he procured the lieut.-colonelcy of the twelfth light dragoons, joined the regiment in Ireland shortly afterwards, and in 1778 obtained the appointment of quarter-master-general in that country. In 1782 he was removed to the lieut.-colonelcy of the second Irish horse, now the fifth dragoon guards. In 1785 he again proceeded to the continent, attended the exercises of the Prussian troops during three summers, and after his return he presented His Majesty with a detailed account of their evolutions.
Colonel Dundas, having become a proficient tactician, produced, in 1788, a highly useful work on the principles of military movements, which became the basis of our army regulations for field exercises. His abilities obtained for him the favour and attention of King George III., who appointed him adjutant-general in Ireland, for the purpose of introducing his system of tactics into the army of that country. In 1790 Colonel Dundas was promoted to the rank of major-general. In 1791 he obtained the colonelcy of the twenty-second foot, and in the same year was placed on the Irish staff, but he resigned that appointment in 1793 to engage in service of actual warfare. After the commencement of hostilities with the French republic, Major-General Dundas was employed on a military mission to the island of Jersey, and was subsequently sent to the continent to confer with the Duke of York respecting the siege of Dunkirk. From Flanders he proceeded to Toulon, which had recently been taken possession of by a British armament; and his services there, although he was ultimately obliged to evacuate the place, called forth the approbation of his sovereign and of the British nation. After abandoning Toulon, he made a descent on Corsica, which island was reduced and annexed to the British dominions; but shortly afterwards he received directions to proceed to Flanders, where he arrived in the spring of 1794, and commanded a brigade of cavalry at the battle of Tournay on the 22d of May, 1794. Major-General Dundas was actively employed in the retreat through Holland, and the corps under his immediate command gained considerable advantage over the enemy in two successive actions near Gelder-Malsen; he highly distinguished himself also in an attack upon the French post at Thuyl, in December of the same year. He continued with the British troops in Germany during the summer of 1795, and in December was appointed colonel of the SEVENTH Light Dragoons. After his return to England he was appointed quarter-master-general to the army; and he composed the celebrated regulations for the field exercises and movements for the cavalry, which were approved by his Royal Highness the Duke of York and by King George III., and ordered to be exclusively adopted throughout the cavalry.