John Fox Burgoyne

Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne, 1st Baronet GCB (24 July 1782 – 7 October 1871) was a British Army officer.

Military career


Burgoyne was the son of General John Burgoyne and opera singer Susan Caulfield. In 1798, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant. He fought against the army of Napoleon I and campaigned in the Pyrenees under the Duke of Wellington. Wellington transferred him to Burgos and later to San Sebastián to participate in the Siege of Rosetta in 1807. For his services during the Peninsular War, Burgoyne received the Army Gold Cross, with one clasp, for Badajoz, Salamanca, Vitoria, San Sebastian, and the Nive, and the Military General Service Medal with three clasps for Busaco, Ciudad Rodrigo, and Nivelle.

In the War of 1812, he fought under General Pakenham as a Lieutenant Colonel and participated in the Battle of New Orleans.

In 1826, Burgoyne accompanied General Clinton to Portugal. He was appointed as Colonel in 1830. In 1838, he became a Major General and in 1845 was named Inspector-General of Fortifications, the executive head of the Royal Engineers. His memoirs prompted the fortification of the English coast.

Burgoyne was heavily involved in civil administration in Ireland, serving as Chairman of the Board of Works (1831–45). During the Irish Potato Famine, he led the efforts to provide relief from mass starvation.

In 1845 he became Inspector-General of Fortifications and as part of this he advised on the fortifications in Gibraltar in 1848 making the wise recommendation that the guns on the Devil's Tongue Battery be directed into Gibraltar Harbour. In 1851, he was promoted to Lieutenant General. Before the outbreak of the Crimean War, he went to Constantinople to assist in its fortification and that of the Dardanelles. During the siege of Sevastopol, he arranged for the bombardment of Malakoff. Upon his return to England in 1856, he received a baronetcy. In 1865, he was made the Commander of the Tower of London and retired in 1868 as a Field Marshal.

John Fox Burgoyne died on 7 October 1871 in Kensington, and is buried in the nearby Brompton Cemetery, London. Castle Hill Fort in Dover was renamed Fort Burgoyne in his honour, which in turn has given its name to a residential development called Burgoyne Heights.

He was the father of Hugh Talbot Burgoyne, and the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland.