Clinton, Sir Henry c.1738-1795
British soldier

He was born in Newfoundland, Canada, the son of George Clinton, Governor of Newfoundland, and afterwards of New York. He served in the Seven Years War (1756-63), and was sent to America in 1775, where he fought at Bunker Hill, and in 1776 was repulsed in an attack on Charleston. After John Burgoyne's surrender in 1778, Clinton succeeded Admiral Howe as Commander-in-Chief. In 1780 he captured Charleston and the entire Southern army, but after Lord Cornwallis's capitulation at Yorktown in 1781 he resigned and returned to England, where he published a Narrative of the campaign (1783). In 1794 he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar.