Henry Fane (British Army officer)

He was the eldest son of Hon. Henry Fane (d.1802), of Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire, younger son of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland.

Fane joined the 6th Dragoon Guards as a cornet in 1792 and served as aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, John Fane, before obtaining a Lieutenancy in the 55th Regiment of Foot. He was promoted to Captain-lieutenant in the 4th Dragoons in 1795; to Major the following year and to Lieutenant-colonel in 1797, subsequently serving throughout the rebellion that year. On 1 January 1805 following his removal to the Lieutenant-colonency of the 1st King's Dragoon Guards, he was appointed aide-de-camp to King George III, which made him a Colonel in the army.[1]

He was made a KCB in 1815 and a GCB in 1826. Fane served as MP for Lyme Regis in 1802–1816, MP for Sandwich in 1829–1830 and MP for Hastings in 1830–1831. He was named Commander-in-Chief of India in 1835. He died on 24 March 1840.[11]

Fane formed a "strong attachment" to Isabella Gorges, a daughter of Hamilton Gorges, and since 1791 the wife of Edward Cooke,[12] described in his will as "of Avon" (i.e. Avon Tyrrell, Sopley, Hampshire). From 1801 Fane and Mrs Cooke lived together as man and wife, and had six illegitimate children, of which three survived infancy:[13]

Arms of Fane of Boyton, illegitimate issue of Gen. Henry Fane: Argent, on a fess azure three dexter gauntlets appaumy or,[14] a differenced version of Fane, Earl of Westmorland

• Col. Henry Fane (1802–1836), life tenant of Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire, under the will of his father.[15] Started his military career as Capt. 4th Regiment, Dragoon Guards. Three of his sons were surviving in 1880.[16]
• Isabella Fane (1804–1880), spinster.[17] Her letters from India, while acting as her father's hostess between 1835 and 1838, are described as "corrective to the notion that all Englishwomen in India were of the straightlaced memsahib type – snobbish, imperious and racially prejudiced".[18]
• Rev. Arthur Fane (1809–1872), vicar of Warminster, Wilts 1841–1859[19] and later appointed rector of Fulbeck by his father.[20] Educated at Exeter College, Oxford.[20] Married Lucy Bennett, daughter and heiress of J. Bennett of Pyt House, Wiltshire, and Boyton Manor, Wilts. Six children surviving in 1880.[21] Appointed Prebendary of Salisbury. Served as domestic chaplain to his cousin the Earl of Westmorland. His grandson Major Henry Nevile Fane (1883–1947), Coldstream Guards (son of his third son Sir Edmund Douglas Veitch Fane (1837–1900) KCMG) married Hon. Harriet Trefusis (d.1958), daughter and senior co-heiress of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton(d.1957). Major Henry Fane's grandson (by his son Capt. Charles Nevile Fane) was Gerard Nevile Mark Fane, who assumed the additional surname of Trefusis following the death of his grandmother Harriet, and became 22nd Baron Clinton in 1965, having claimed the termination of the 1957 abeyance of that title.

• Glover, Michael. The Peninsular War 1807–1814. London: Penguin, 2001. ISBN 0-14-139041-7
• Oman, Charles. Wellington's Army, 1809–1814. London: Greenhill, (1913) 1993. ISBN 0-947898-41-7
• Philippart, John (1820). The Royal Military Calendar or Army Service and Commission Book. III.
• Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1993. ISBN 1-85367-276-9
• Zimmermann, Dick. "Battle of Vimeiro," Wargamer's Digest magazine, vol 10, no 12, October 1983.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Fane