Roger Handasyd
Roger Peter Handasyd was an English military officer and a Member of Parliament or MP from 1722 to 1754.
Often cited as one of the longest serving officers in British military history, he saw little active service. First commissioned in 1694 at the age of 5, he was too young for the 1689-1697 Nine Years War and spent most of the 1701 to 1713 War of the Spanish Succession on garrison duties in Jamaica. Appointed colonel of the 22nd Foot in 1712, he transferred to the 16th Foot in 1730, a post he retained until his death in 1763. Colonels often delegated operational command to a subordinate and his primary occupation after 1715 was politics.
Described by a contemporary as a 'bitter Whig', he entered Parliament in 1722 for Huntingdon, a seat he held until 1741. At the outbreak of the 1745 Rising, he was Governor of Berwick-on-Tweed and after the Battle of Prestonpans, succeeded Sir John Cope as Commander-in-Chief, Scotland. In early November, he entered Edinburgh unopposed and was replaced by Henry Hawley in early January 1746.
He re-entered Parliament in 1747 as MP for Scarborough before retiring in 1754. He died in London on 4 January 1763 and was buried in the parish church of Great Staughton.
Life
Although the family originally came from Elsdon, Northumberland, his father Thomas Handasyd was an officer in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, who married the daughter of a Dutch merchant, Anna Morel. Roger was born in 1689 in the Dutch town of Heusden, the eldest survivor of six children; his siblings included Thomas, William, Clifford and Anne.In 1710, he married Elizabeth Thorneycroft but they had no surviving children; he died in London on 4 January 1763 and was buried in St Andrews, parish church of Great Staughton, near the family property of Gaynes Hall, which had been purchased by his father in 1717.
Career
In November 1688, Thomas Handasyd accompanied William III to England during the Glorious Revolution; between 1689–1698, he served in Ireland, Flanders and Newfoundland. Roger attended Westminster School in London, where one of his classmates was Sir John Cope, whom he later replaced as Commander-in-Chief, Scotland in 1745.In 1694, his father was commissioned as a major in the newly-formed 28th Foot and at the age of five, Roger was appointed ensign in the same unit. Commissions were considered private assets and often used to reward good service or provide pensions for the families of officers killed in action. Although it was becoming less common, there were no age restrictions; his contemporary Henry Hawley was commissioned at the age of nine, after his father was killed at the Battle of Steenkerque in 1692. Holding a commission did not require service, especially at the senior levels; many colonels delegated their duties to a subordinate.
Handasyd was too young for the 1689 to 1697 Nine Years War and spent most of the War of the Spanish Succession on garrison duty in Jamaica, where his father was Governor. After Thomas retired in 1711, Roger took over his position as Colonel of the 22nd Foot before returning to England in 1714. During the 1715 Rising, his unit occupied Oxford, a measure apparently considered necessary because it was the Royalist capital in the First English Civil War. Most of the period between 1714 and 1745 was occupied with politics; in 1730, he transferred to the 16th Foot; between 1741 and 1747, it served in the West Indies, Flanders and Scotland but he did not accompany it. He became Lieutenant General in 1743, a promotion based on time served, making him eligible for command but there were far more generals than positions and many never held an active post.
In the 1722 General election, he was returned as Member of Parliament for Huntingdon, near his home in Great Staugham. This was controlled by the Whig Earls of Sandwich and with their backing, Handasyd held it until 1741; he made only two speeches in that time but was a reliable government supporter. This led to his appointment in 1737 as Lieutenant-Governor, Fort St. Philip, Menorca; a 1741 House of Lords investigation found he never spent any time there, although this was not unusual. Many similar positions were sinecures but Menorca was an important base and absenteeism an ongoing problem. After its loss in 1756, a Parliamentary Committee found over 35 senior officers were absent, including the Governor of Fort St Philip and the colonels of all four regiments in its garrison.
; Handasyd was appointed Governor, shortly before the 1745 Rising
In 1739, Handasyd voted in favour of the Convention of Pardo, an attempt to resolve commercial disputes with Spain; the House of Commons voting records also listed members income and show he officially received £2,500 per annum as colonel and Lieutenant-Governor. The Convention failed to resolve the problem, resulting in the 1739-1748 War of Jenkins' Ear, fought largely in the Caribbean and North America. Handasyd's regiment was sent to the West Indies in January 1741, an area notorious for high mortality rates; it took part in an assault on Cartagena de Indias, in modern Colombia, where losses from yellow fever and disease were estimated as between 80-90%.
These setbacks weakened Robert Walpole, Whig Prime Minister since 1721. When the new Earl of Sandwich withdrew his support for the government, Handasyd lost his seat in the 1741 General election. In 1745, he was appointed Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed, near the family home in Elsdon, Northumberland. Its role as a border fortress ended after the 1707 Union and its defences had been allowed to decay. The regular army was in Flanders, fighting in the War of the Austrian Succession and so positions like Berwick were held by retired or elderly officers like Handasyd; Edinburgh Castle was commanded by George Preston, who was 87 years old. The 1745 Jacobite Rising unexpectedly restored its importance, especially after the government defeat at Prestonpans in September. When Sir John Cope arrived in Berwick after the battle, he was relieved of command and as senior officer, Handasyd became Commander-in-Chief, Scotland.
The Jacobites spent the next month in Edinburgh debating strategy; General Wade, commander at Newcastle, instructed Handasyd to establish a supply base at Berwick and obtain information on rebel movements. After the Jacobite army left Edinburgh on 4 November, Wade ordered Handasyd to re-occupy it; his lack of experience meant it was conducted with what Wade considered excessive caution but he entered the town on 14 November without opposition. The Jacobites reached Derby before returning to Scotland in late December; Handasyd's brief spell in command ended when Henry Hawley arrived in Edinburgh on 5 January and took over as Commander-in-Chief.
Hawley was replaced in July by the Earl of Albemarle, who described Scotland as 'the worst country existing;' Handasyd reportedly complained he should have been appointed instead. The Whigs had split into two factions and in the 1747 General election, he was returned as MP for Scarborough, a seat controlled by the Earl of Carlisle, part of the smaller Patriot Whig grouping. In 1749, he became a Council member of the Free British Fishery Society; this was set up to revive the British deep-sea herring fishery, which was then dominated by the Dutch.
In 1751, Handasyd made a rare speech in Parliament defending the Duke of Cumberland; he later wrote to the Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, asking for a 'better regiment' but his request was rejected. At the 1754 General Election, he stepped down from Parliament, despite having been offered his old seat of Huntingdon. He died at his London residence in Hanover Square on 4 January 1763.