Thomas Lascelles (1670–1751)

Colonel Thomas Lascelles (c.1670 – 1 November 1751 ) was chief engineer at Portsmouth Dockyard until 1742, when he was made Chief Royal Engineer and Surveyor-General of the Ordnance.

Life
He seems to have come from the Lascelles family which owned a small estate in Ganthorne, north Yorkshire. He is usually linked to the Thomas Lascelles baptised at Leake, Yorkshire on 16 May 1670, the son of another Thomas Lascelles. He volunteered for the Williamite forces in 1689 and fought in Ireland until 1691, including at the Battle of the Boyne. He was a genetleman in the 2nd Troop of Guards Volunteers in 1702, when he fought in the Rooke Expedition and the destruction of the Spanish plate fleet at the Battle of Vigo Bay. His first regular commission came in 1704 as an engineer, though it was only half-pay - the other half went to John Armstrong. They both fought throughout John Churchill's Flanders campaigns, with Lascelles seriously wounded at the Battle of Blenheim and receiving £33 from the £65,000 distributed to members of Churchill's army by Queen Anne. By his death he had fought in 21 campaigns and 35 battles. He and Armstrong were appointed as the commissioners overseeing the demolition of the fort and harbour at Dunkirk in 1713, with pay of 20 and later 30 shillings a day (the usual rate was 10 shillings a day). Lascelles remained there until 1716 and then returned between 1718 and 1725 as Deputy Quartermaster General, a post he was granted in 1715. Armstrong left partway through 1718 and by the time he returned to England in 1725 Lascelles was exhausted.

From 1722 Lascelles had been director of engineers, filling a two year vacancy after the death of Lewis Petit des Etans. Whilst Armstrong was abroad on his duties as Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, Lascelles acted as his deputy in Great Britain. He was ordered back to Dunkirk a third time from 1730 to 1733. For the 1740-41 Cartagena Expedition under Lord Cathcart, Lascelles was appointed chief engineer to the artillery train but he was so busy in England that he had to send Jonas Moore as his deputy. Also, he wanted to be made colonel of a regiment on the Irish establishment in return for going on the expedition, but George II refused.

He filled the office of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance during Armstrong's final illness from November 1741 and succeeded him as Chief Royal Engineer on his death in July 1742. In the meantime Lascelles had also been appointed master-surveyor of the ordnance at the Tower of London (April 1742) then assistant and deputy to the Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance (May 1742). In 1742 he visited Ostend to prepare a report on what ammunition and artillery it needed and to repair and extend its fortifications. He and George Wade dismissed the Earl of Stair's August 1742 plan to advance on Dunkirk and Le Havre as impractical due to the British force's lack of heavy siege artillery.

His final promotion was to inspector-general of the artillery. He was the British government's representative for putting the 1745 convention between it and the Dutch Republic into effect. He resigned from his posts on 1st March 1750 and the following month was granted an annual life pension of £200. He moved back to Yorkshire and died at Pontefract in 1751.