WILSON, SIR ROBERT THOMAS, brother of Major William Wilson (qv); b. 17 Aug 1777; adm. 19 Apr 1786; left 1788; at Winchester Coll. 1789-91; Cornet, 15th Light Dragoons 24 Apr 1794; Lieut., 30 Oct 1794; Capt., 21 Sep 1796; Maj., Hompesch’s Mounted Riflemen 28 Jun 1800; Lieut. -Col., 27 Feb 1802; half-pay Oct 1802; 19th Light Dragoons Aug 1804; 20th Light Dragoons 7 Mar 1805; Brevet Col. and ADC to King 25 Aug 1810; Lieut. -Col., 22nd Light Dragoons 10 Dec 1812; Major-Gen., 4 Jun 1813; served in Flanders 1794-5; one of the eight officers commanding the two squadrons of the 15th Light Dragoons which participated in the rout of a much superior French force at Villers-en-Cauchies 24 Apr 1794, preventing the capture of the Emperor Francis II by the French; for this brilliant action Wilson and the other officers were presented with a commemporative gold medal in 1798 by the Emperor, who also conferred on them in 1800 the Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa; George III permitted them to accept this order on 2 Jun 1801, with the rank of Baron of the Holy Roman Empire and knighthood attached; served at the Helder 1799, in Egypt 1801 and at the Cape of Good Hope 1806; present at battle of Eylau 1807; commanded Royal Lusitanian Legion in Portugal 1808-9, receiving rank of Brigadier-Gen. in Portuguese army; accompanied Sir Robert Liston to Constantinope in 1812, with local rank of Brigadier-Gen. in British army; British Commissioner with the Russian Army in 1812-3, taking part in the battles of Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Kulm and Kranpen; British Commissioner with Austrian Army in Germany and Italy 1813-4, serving at Leipzig, Vicenza, Verona and Valaggio; assisted in escape of Comte de Lavalette from Paris and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment 24 Apr 1816; MP Southwark 1818-31; dismissed from British army 15 Sep 1821 for attempting to prevent bloodshed during the disturbance at Queen Caroline’s funeral on the previous day; went to Spain in 1823 to take part in the war there; reinstated in Army with rank of Lieut. -Gen. on accession of William IV in 1830; although he had entered the House of Commons as a member of the Radical wing of the Whig party, he refused to vote for the Reform Bill of 1831, which he regarded as “the initiatory measure of a republican form of government”, and retired from active political life; Col., 15th Light Dragoons, from 29 Dec 1835; Gen., 23 Nov 1841; Governor and Commander in Chief, Gibraltar 4 Oct 1843 – Nov 1848; although the recipient of a number of distinctions from the Allied Sovereigns, he was never honoured by his own; author, The History of the British Expedition to Egypt, 1802, and other works; m. at Gretna Green 7 Jul 1797, and at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London 10 Mar 1798 Jemima, dau. of Col. William Belford, Harbledown, Kent; d. 9 May 1849. Buried North Aisle, Westminster Abbey. DNB.
