Moore, Sir John 1761-1809
Scottish soldier

Born in Glasgow, he served in the American Revolution from 1779 to 1783, the Revolutionary War in France, the West Indies (1796), Ireland (1798) and Holland (1799). He was in Egypt in 1801, and in 1802 served in Sicily and Sweden. In 1808 he was sent to strengthen the English army in the Peninsula. In October he received instructions to co-operate with the Spanish forces in the expulsion of the French, and moved his army from Lisbon towards Vallodolid; but Spanish apathy, French successes elsewhere and the intrigues of his own countrymen soon placed him in a critical position. When news reached him that Madrid had fallen, and that Napoleon I was marching to crush him, he was forced to retreat. In December he began a disastrous march from Astorga to Coru�a. His army reached Corrunna (La Coru�a) in a lamentable state, and Nicolas Soult was waiting to attack as soon as the embarkation should begin. In a desperate battle on 19 January 1809, the French were defeated with the loss of 2,000 men. Moore himself was mortally wounded in the moment of victory, and his burial was immortalised in Charles Wolfe's poem 'The Burial of Sir John Moore'.