General Francis Lewis Hugonin (3 October 1750 – 29 March 1836) was a British Army cavalry officer who commanded the 4th Dragoons and saw action in the Peninsular War. Early life The son of James Hugonin, an officer of Dragoons, and his wife Isabella, Hugonin was baptized at Halesworth, Suffolk, on 5 October 1750."John Lewis Hugonin" in Halesworth, Suffolk: Register of baptisms, marriages and burials, 2 October 1750 An earlier Francis Lewis Hugonin, born at La Tour de Pil in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, was a Huguenot naturalized as a British subject on 17 February 1724/25.The Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, Volumes 27-30 (1923), p. 131 Career Hugonin was commissioned as an officer of dragoons at the age of sixteen. He fought at the Battle of Salamanca of 1812, during the Peninsular War, when as the Colonel commanding the 4th Dragoons he led the regiment’s left squadron in a charge of the Heavy Brigade led overall by Major-General Le Marchant. This is considered the most important British cavalry action of the war.A FINE ARMY GOLD MEDAL FOR THE PENINSULAR WAR SELLS FOR MORE THAN £30,000 AT DIX NOONAN WEBB, noonans.co.uk, accessed 26 July 2026
Hugonin was Colonel of the 4th Dragoons from 9 November 1808 until his death on 29 March 1836.
In 1803, he was gazetted a Major-General,F. J. Faraday, "Selections from the correspondence of Lieutenant Colonel John Leigh Philips", in Memoirs and proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Volume 33 (1890), p. 27 and in July 1810 a Lieutenant General.A List of the Officers of the Army and of the Corps of Royal Marines (London: Great Britain War Office, G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, 1820) p. 129 Finally, on 19 July 1821, he was promoted to the rank of full General.Joseph Hayden, "General of the Army" in The Book of Dignities: Containing Lists of the Official Personages of the British Empire ... from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time (London: Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851), p. 322
Hugonin died at home, Nurstead House, near Petersfield, Hampshire, on 29 March 1836, aged 84. The Hampshire Telegraph noted that he had served as an officer of the Queen's Own Light Dragoons for 68 Years.Died—General Francis Hugonin, Hampshire Telegraph, 4 April 1836, p. 1 He was buried at Buriton, Hampshire, on 7 April."Francis Lewis Hugonin", Hampshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1921, Ancestry.com, accessed 26 July 2026 Personal life Hugonin married Charlotte Edgar, of Redhouse, Suffolk, and was the father of James Hugonin (1782–1854), who was commissioned into the 4th Dragoons at the age of thirteen and commanded the regiment at the Battle of Toulouse of 1814."The late Colonel Hugonin", Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, March 1854, p. 412 His daughter Charlotte Hugonin (1788–1869), in 1815 married Roderick Murchison and was notable as a botanist.Martina Kölbl-Ebert, "Charlotte Murchison (née Hugonin) 1788–1869", Earth Sciences History 16:1 (1997), pp. 39–43
F. L. Hugonin’s widow died on 16 January 1838, aged 80.Monumental inscription; and HUGONIN, Charlotte Petersfield VII 93, FreeBMD, accessed 31 July 2026
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