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Henry Floyd was the only son of
General Sir John Floyd, Baronet, (1748-1818) and his wife Rebecca Juliana, the
daughter of Charles Darke of Madras. Sir John Floyd was a cavalry soldier who
fought with the 15th Light Dragoons at Emsdorf in 1760 and who later
distinguished himself in India between 1781 and 1799. Sir John married in
Madras in 1791, where Henry was born on 2nd September 1793. Henry Floyd’s
younger sister, Julia, married the British statesman Sir Robert Peel, Baronet,
MP, in 1820.
Henry Floyd entered the Army two
months before his fifteenth birthday in 1808, becoming a cornet, without
purchase, in the 8th (Light) Dragoons - the regiment of which his father was
Colonel and which was then stationed in India. It is unlikely that he actually
served with his father’s regiment but the acquisition of the rank gave him
valuable seniority. Less than a year later, he exchanged out of the 8th to the
19th (Light) Dragoons, also stationed in India, and then obtained a
lieutenancy, without purchase, in his new regiment in 1810.
Floyd’s first experience of
active service came as an ADC to Major General William Henry Clinton
(1769-1846), with whom he served in Sicily in 1812 and in eastern Spain in
1813. Late in 1813, he left the 19th Light Dragoons to become captain of a
company, without purchase, in the York Chasseurs; a month later he exchanged
into the 30th Regiment of Foot and, a month after that, exchanged into the 20th
Light Dragoons. With the coming of Peace in 1814, the 10th Hussars found itself
with a number of officers looking for exchanges and Floyd benefited from this.
Late in 1814, he exchanged from the 20th Light Dragoons into the 10th (or The
Prince of Wales’s Own) (Light) Dragoons (Hussars) and it was with his new
regiment that he served at Waterloo in 1815.
Having commanded No. 6 Troop of the
10th Hussars throughout the Waterloo campaign and been present at Quatre Bras,
Waterloo and the capture of Paris, Floyd settled down to the routine of
peacetime soldiering with the 10th for the next five years. Inheriting his
father’s baronetcy on 10th January 1818, he purchased the rank of major in
the 11th Light Dragoons in 1820 and, the following year, exchanged it for that
in the 8th Light Dragoons. The regiment was ordered home from India in August
1822, and, on arrival in Britain, in May 1823, received orders to adopt Hussar
dress. Since Floyd is shown in this portrait in light dragoon uniform, the
portrait of him must have been painted between 1821 and 1823: it was probably
painted on the occasion of his marriage. He spent six months in 1823-24 in
command of the regiment, in the absence of the lieutenant-colonel, but in 1824
he purchased a lieutenant-colonelcy of infantry on the Unattached list and took
half-pay concurrently. For the remaining forty years of his life, Floyd
remained on half-pay, being promoted colonel in 1838 and major general in
1851.
On 30th August 1821, Sir Henry Floyd
married Mary, eldest daughter of William Murray of Jamaica. The marriage was
exceptionally fruitful, producing eleven children - 8 boys and 3 girls. Four of
Floyd’s sons became soldiers, although the youngest died, aged 14, as a
Royal Naval midshipman at Gibraltar in 1859. Sir Henry Floyd died on 4th March
1868.
Oil on canvas, circle of George Dawe
RA.
Sold as lot 464 by Sotheby's at Fawley House, Oxfordshire,
14-15
October 2003.
Reproduced by courtesy of The Hon. David McAlpine. |
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