Colonel John Gurwood (7 April 1788 – 27 December 1845) was a British Army officer who published the dispatches of the Duke of Wellington which form a major contribution to military history.
Early life John Gurwood was born on 7 April 1788 in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. His father, Richard Gurwood, was born in Langton, Yorkshire and his mother, Marisco Jay, came from Essex. The couple had a son, Richard Jay, in 1782 but did not marry until October 1787. Richard Gurwood died in October 1791. He had almost certainly been a London merchant, his will describes him as 'Esquire of Hoddesdon', and he left a substantial sum to his wife and two sons and a small estate at Langton to John.PROB 11/1209/330
Marisco Jay married Henry Okey in May 1796 and the family seem then to have lived in Hackney. The Okeys had two children: Charles born in May 1797; and Marisco born in June 1798. John had a close relationship with his mother and became extremely fond of his stepfather and of Charles and Marisco.
Military life
Service in the Peninsula Gurwood may have started work in a merchant's office but on 30 March 1808 he enlisted as an Ensign in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot, a decision he said was strongly opposed by his mother. It was a non-purchase commission received on the recommendation of Lord Charles Somerset who wrote of Gurwood in February 1812 that he was 'a young officer in whose welfare I have always been much interested, and for whom I procured his first commission.'Gurwood p42
Gurwood served in the Peninsula from August 1808 to June 1812 taking part in the battle for Ciudad Rodrigo, the Combat of the Coa, the fight for Badajoz, and the battle at Sabugal where he was severely wounded in the leg. At Ciudad Rodrigo on 19 January 1812 he took part in the forlorn hope in the lesser breach. Despite being wounded in the head, he gained the rampart and, guided by a French officer whom he saved from being threatened by British soldiers, made his way with his men to the Citadel and took the surrender of the Governor in customary fashion by receiving his sword. Gurwood escorted the Governor and his party to Wellington who then presented Gurwood with the Governor's sword. It was the proudest moment of Gurwood's life.
Officers who survived a Forlorn Hope expected promotion especially if, like Gurwood, they had been mentioned in dispatches. Gurwood was much too junior to be promoted within his own regiment and was made Captain in the Royal African Corps. This was a decidedly inferior regiment and Gurwood tried to exchange into the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards. This was not allowed, again because he was not senior enough, but he then obtained permission to make an exchange into the 9th Light Dragoons where he became brigade-major. He returned to England to sort out his financial affairs now he was of age, was befriended by the Napier family, and was made ADC to Lord Charles Somerset who made him known to the Duke of York and presented him at Court. Gurwood returned to the Peninsula in December 1812 and on 17 January 1813 acted as Esquire when Wellington knighted Sir Charles Stuart on the orders of the Prince Regent. From this time he was frequently in Wellington's company. He fought in the battle of Vitoria in June 1813 and was sent to keep order in the town which was being subjected to extensive plundering and looting. He and his brigade then took part in the long campaign up through Spain and France.
After three months leave in England, Gurwood went to Brussels in August 1814 having been appointed ADC to Sir Henry Clinton, who was second in command to the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands. When the news broke that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and Sir Henry was ordered to remove immediately to Tournai. In the hurry and confusion Gurwood offended Clinton and felt obliged to resign as ADC. He rejoined the 10th Hussars to which he had transferred in 1814 and served with them at Waterloo, where his horse was killed under him and he was wounded in the knee.
Service in Britain At the end of 1815 Gurwood joined his Regiment for embarkation to England where they were quartered in Brighton and then in Eastbourne. He was still a regimental captain and very aware that his promotion prospects were severely reduced by the peace. Officer promotions in the British Army were customarily made by purchase except in time of war when vacancies occurred because of death or wounds. The sums involved were considerable but could be offset by selling the previous rank. However officers could not sell non-purchase commissions which left them constantly having to find larger and larger sums. Gurwood knew that he would have to press immediately for further non-purchase promotions on the basis of his active service. He asked both his superior Colonel Quentin and Sir Henry Torrens at Horse Guards to speak on his behalf to the Prince Regent who was the colonel of the regiment, and had the opportunity in Brighton to speak to the Prince personally. He was repeatedly subjected to the Prince's whims and changes of mind but was eventually gazetted brevet major in March 1817.
In 1818 he went the 10th Hussars to Bristol and in 1819 to Edinburgh. He was at this time extremely concerned about the plight of the common soldiers who were discharged into a country that had run up an enormous national debt in order to pay for the war, that was experiencing catastrophic harvests, and that was suffering severe outbreaks of disease most notably typhus. Like other officers he assisted men who had served under him by giving them money and helping them to make a case for receiving a pension, and by finding them paid positions. While in Edinburgh he wrote a long analysis of the Regulations under which soldiers could receive pensions and he pressed both Lord Fitzroy Somerset and the Duke of Wellington to draw it to the attention of Lord Palmerston, the Secretary at War. The reply was that the pension fund was oversubscribed, the Duke admitting to Gurwood that the interests of common soldiers had suffered from a 'lavish liberality extended towards officers.'Wellington Papers MS321/5
Gurwood again became discouraged about the possibility of progressing in his profession and he was also very distressed by the death of his mother in January 1820. He was allowed to go on half pay provided he exchanged into the West India Regiment, and obtained three months leave of absence. He went to Paris where in the spring of 1823 he was asked by his friend Sir Charles Stuart, the British Ambassador in Paris, to take some dispatches to Sir William A'Court, the British Ambassador in Spain. He carried out the mission and then travelled round Spain which was in turmoil following the revolt which had forced Ferdinand VII to restore the liberal constitution of 1812. On the suggestion of Sir Charles Stuart Gurwood wrote a long report describing and analysing the situation.
At some time in 1823 Gurwood met Finette Mayer (née Kreilsamner) in Paris. She had married Lazare Mayer in Lyon on 22 October 1813 and they had a daughter Eugenie in June 1814. Finette was no longer living with her husband and she and Gurwood formed a relationship. Their daughter, Adele Marisco Rodrigua Gurwood, was born in Paris in early September 1826.Shane p190
In 1825 Gurwood accompanied Sir Charles Stuart on a mission to Lisbon and Brazil. Before he left he thought that he had secured promotion only to find that his name was once again not in the Gazette. Finally in 1827 he accepted the appointment of deputy adjutant general in 19th Regiment of Foot with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel and left to join the regiment in Barbados. Postings to the West Indies were notoriously unhealthy and he asked his friend Mrs Fitzherbert to look after Finette and his daughter if he should die.
Literary career
The General Orders Gurwood took with him to the West Indies Wellington's General Orders and Regulations evidently with the aim of producing a shortened edition.Woolgar p192 Wellington issued his Orders daily to the army and his clarity and attention to detail contributed enormously to the efficiency of operations. They covered all aspects of military life from the issue and maintenance of equipment to the care of horses and baggage animals, from men's rations to forage for animals, from the weight to be carried to the distances to be marched. In the end they amounted to seven printed volumes. Gurwood removed the many entries relating to courts martial and then re-ordered the rest under headings listed in alphabetical order, the whole being reduced to one volume. The Duke gave his permission for publication and the book appeared in September 1832. His friend Charles Arbuthnot reported that the Duke was so delighted with reading his old orders that he did nothing else all day but read them aloud. The first edition of 1000 copies sold so well that a second edition was soon in preparation.
Much of the work on the General Orders was done in Portsmouth where Gurwood was posted in 1830 as Major of Brigade in the South West District. Finette and Adele, who had been living in Paris, were at last able to join him, and Fanny (as Finette was known in England) must now have been widowed because she and Gurwood were married at St Martins in the Fields on 18 November 1834.
In early April 1835 the Duke, as Foreign Secretary, sent Lord Eliot on a mission to Spain and asked Gurwood to accompany him. The two men were chosen for their fluent French and Spanish and for their understanding of the country and its politics. The First Carlist War had broken out in 1833 on the death of Ferdinand VII and the British Government, which did not take sides, was horrified by the summary execution of prisoners by both armies. The mission managed to make contact with both sides including with Tomas di Zamalcarregui, the Basque general on the Carlist faction with which Gurwood was more in political sympathy. They secured a signed Convention on the fair treatment of prisoners and the wounded but, sadly, this lasted only a few months.
Gurwood and Fanny had a second daughter in July 1835. She was called Zumala Mary Emily in memory of the Carlist general who had died in June. Gurwood again pressed for promotion, no doubt needing a bigger income to meet family responsibilities. When he was unsuccessful he considered leaving the service but decided to continue with the posting in Portsmouth.
The Indian Dispatches
Gurwood had been thinking about editing the Duke's Dispatches for some time and spelt out his idea at breakfast at Stratfield Saye in January 1832 when the conversation turned on Sir William Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula. The Duke made no reply but Gurwood prepared a paper which was presented to the Duke in January 1833. This proposed that the whole of the Dispatches 'from Ahmednuggur and Assaye to Waterloo and Paris' should be arranged in chronological order. Some material relating to the Indian campaigns would be added to explain 'the vast importance of the victories and successes of General Wellesley', but the 'dispatches from the Peninsula, require no such explanatory introduction.'Wellington Papers WP2/1/40 The Duke replied on 13 January that he had not the smallest objection to what Gurwood proposed to do. If Gurwood would come over on any day in the next two weeks he would be delighted to see him.