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| Page revised: Mon 02-Nov-2009 |
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard FLETCHER |
He was born in Ipswich in 1768, the son of Reverend Richard Fletcher. He passed through the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 9 July 1788, but transferred to the Royal Engineers on 29 June 1790, he spent the rest of his career in the Corps. In 1791 he was sent to the West Indies, where he took part in the capture of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Lucia. At the taking of St Lucia he was wounded in the head. He returned to England in 1796, when he was appointed Adjutant to the Royal Military Artificers, a post which he held for upwards of two years. While serving at Portsmouth he met and fell in love with Elizabeth, a daughter of Dr John Mudge of Plymouth they married on 22 November 1769. They had one son and five daughter, sadly Elizabeth died while he was serving in Spain. |
 Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher Bart KCH (1768-1813) |
| At the end of 1798 he was ordered to the East to be employed by the Ottoman Sultan, Selîm III (who reigned 1789-1807), in the Ottoman dominions with the brevet rank of Major. He did good service in this position, and aided in constructing several works of defence in Syria, in preparation of an anticipated invasion by France under Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). In December, 1799, he was sent with despatches to General Sir Ralph Abercrombie (1734-1801), who was on his road to Egypt with an expeditionary force sent to engage the French. Sir Ralph directed him to accompany Major McKerras, Royal Engineers, in a reconnoitring trip to Egypt, with a view to ascertaining the most suitable spot for the disembarkation of the army. In this work they were surprised by a French gunboat. McKerras was killed and Fletcher taken prisoner. At the termination of the campaign, after the capture of Cairo he obtained his release, and was rewarded by the Sultan with a gold medal for his services. He returned to England in 1802, and was employed in the ordinary duties of the Corps until 1807, when he was sent with the expedition under General Charles Murray (Lord Cathcart) to Copenhagen. He took part in the capture of that city, and of the Danish fleet. In 1808 he was ordered to the Peninsula, and arrived just after the battle of Vimiera (August 1808), when he assumed the command of the Engineers, previously held by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) George Landmann. He afterwards became Sir John Moore's (1761-1809) Commanding Engineer during his brief advance into Spain and subsequent retreat to Corunna. |
On June 21st, 1809, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the Corps, having previously held the same rank locally. When Wellington took over the command of the army Fletcher remained as his Commanding Royal Engineer, and was engaged in all his campaigns. In May, 1811, Henry Earl Mulgrave, Master-General of the Ordnance had represented to the Prince Regent; "the eminent and important services of Lieut.-Col. Fletcher, and particularly the arduous duties of which he had the superintendence during the late and present campaign in Spain and Portugal, in the performance of which, his zeal and ability had been equally conspicuous." In consequence of this recommendation he received a pension of 20s, a day. In the spring of 1813 he paid a short visit to England, on leave from the army, and whilst at home was created a baronet and given the K.C.H. (Knight Command of the Royal Guelphic Order of Hanover). |
As Wellington's Commanding Royal Engineer was responsible for planning and ensuring the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras which was built over a period of 10 months (November 1809 - September 1810) and provided the foundation of Wellington's plan to defend Portugal. He was also responsible for the conduct of the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo (January 1812), Badajoz (April 1812), and San Sebastian (August 1813). He was present at the battles of Talavera (July 1809), Busaco (September 1810), Sabagal (April 1811), Fuentes d'Onor (May 1811), and Vittoria (June 1813). He made all the arrangements for the blockade of Pamplona (1813), after which he proceeded to San Sebastian to take over the charge of the Engineer department at the siege then progressing. He was killed at the second and successful assault of the place, being shot through the heart on August 31st, 1813, at the age of 42 years. He was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Howard Elphinstone, Royal Engineers. Sir Richard was one of four Engineer officers buried on the hill of San Bartolomeo, at the neck connecting the promontory of San Sebastian with the mainland, the three others being Captain Rhodes, Captain Collier, and Lieutenant tenant Machell. A monument has been erected to record the fact. Another monument, designed by E. H. Bailey, RA, was placed in Westminster Abbey at the cost of his brother-officers. |
 Storming of San Sebastian 1813 |
In a letter from Sir Augustus Fraser, written immediately after Fletcher's death, he says:
"We cannot get Sir Richard's loss from our minds. Our trenches, our batteries, all remind us of one of the most amiable men I ever knew, and one of the most solid worth. No loss will be more deeply felt, no place more difficult to be filled up." |
Major General Sir John T Jones (1783-1843), in his Autobiographical Memoirs, gives the following opinion of Fletcher. No one could have had greater opportunities of forming a correct judgment of his character, as he had served with him throughout all the earlier part of the war, having been his Adjutant during the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras, and his Brigade-Major at most of the sieges where he was Commanding Royal Engineer: "Sir R. Fletcher possessed, in an unusual degree, the knowledge and accomplishments of a finished soldier, uniting much general science to long and varied military experience. He was, moreover, hardy, active, and brave to excess; but these valuable qualities were alloyed and almost paralyzed by what, in military language, is called a deficiency of moral courage, or in other words, being too sensitive to the awful responsibility of risking human life, and being too diffident and distrustful of his own judgment, to plan or direct any unusually bold or hazardous enterprise."Lord Wellington bore ample testimony to his merits in his despatches, where Sir Richard's name frequently appears. After his death the Marquis exerted himself strenuously and successfully to obtain an extremely liberal provision for the children whom Fletcher had left behind him, and who, by his death, had been made total orphans. The baronetcy became extinct on the death of his only son in 1876. |
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Additional material: SC Fenwick, FoREM Sources:
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