Lord Frederick Cavendish (British Army officer)

Field Marshal Lord Frederick Cavendish (August 1729 – October 21, 1803) was a British field marshal and Whig politician, a younger son of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire.

He chose a military career, and became an ensign in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards April 29, 1749. He entered parliament in 1751 for the family seat of Derbyshire. On March 17, 1752, he was promoted to captain-lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards. In 1754, he gave up the Derbyshire seat to his brother George and was returned for Derby instead. He was seconded to the 29th Regiment of Foot as lieutenant-colonel in 1755 and went to Ireland with his brother William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, newly made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was promoted to captain and lieutenant-colonel in the 1st Foot Guards on June 1, 1756 and served as an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland in 1757.

He was promoted to colonel on May 7, 1758, and took part in the "descents" upon France that year. He was captured during the disastrous embarkation at St. Cast (September 11, 1758), but was paroled in October.

He was shortly exchanged, and on October 24, 1759, appointed colonel of the 67th Regiment of Foot, which command he held for a year; on October 30, 1760, he took command of the 34th Regiment of Foot. On March 7, 1761, he was promoted to major-general, and sailed for Germany the next month. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick gave him command of a brigade of chasseurs in June 1762, which he led at the Battle of Wilhelmsthal on June 24. Part of his command was ambushed in October 1762 during the siege of Kassel.

He was promoted to lieutenant-general on April 30, 1770, but owing to his sympathies, took no part in the American Revolution. In 1780, he left his seat in Parliament and was succeeded by his nephew Lord George Cavendish. He was promoted to general on November 20, 1782 and field marshal on July 30, 1796. In 1797, he resigned the command of the 34th Regt., and he died in 1803 at Twickenham Park, where he had lived since 1788. He left most of his property to his nephew Lord George Cavendish, later the Earl of Burlington.

References

* Alastair W. Massie, ‘Cavendish, Lord Frederick (1729–1803)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 28 April 2006