GRAHAM, Thomas, Lord Lynedoch, the hero of Barossa, was a cadet of a very ancient and honourable Scottish family. The date and place of his birth are alike unknown with certainty, as no register of the event is known to exist. He was born, however, either in 1750, or (as is more likely) in 1748. The place of his birth was either the family estate of Balgowan, or his father's property of Blairgowrie, near the town of that name, both in the county of Perth. On his father's side he claimed kindred with the dukes of Montrose; his mother was a daughter of the first Earl of Hopetoun. He was the third son, but as both his brothers died young he inherited the family estates. His education was carried on at home, and his tutor was the celebrated James Macpherson, whose name is identified with the poems of Ossian. On reaching manhood, young Graham did very much as was and is the custom of his class—he travelled a good deal on the Continent; farmed a little; distinguished himself as a most daring rider and sportsman, and dipped a good deal into general, but more especially classical literature, for which he had a decided taste. In this way he spent his life till the year
1792, when he had the misfortune, while travelling on the Continent, to lose his wife (the second daughter of Charles, ninth Earl of Cathcart), to whom he was most devotedly attached. This loss preyed deeply and long upon his mind; and the means that he took to drown the memory of his affliction imparted a romantic interest to the whole tenor of his future life. He entered the army as a volunteer; in 1793 took part in the campaign of the south of France, and distinguished himself by the devoted gallantry with which he always marched at the head of his column into the thickest of the fight. On returning home he was made colonel of the 90th regiment, of which the first battalion had been raised by himself. In 1795 he was stationed at Gibraltar, but becoming tired of the dull monotony of garrison routine, he left it, and attached himself to the Austrian headquarters as British commissioner. In this capacity he assisted Wurms in the defence of Mantua, when it was blockaded by the French under General Bonaparte.
On returning home he was again employed on foreign service, and attracted especial notice at the reduction of Minorca and the subsequent blockade and capture of Malta. In 1808 he accompanied Sir John Moore to Spain, and took part in the campaign that ended in the disastrous retreat to Corunna. In the hardships, almost unparalleled, then undergone by the British soldiers, Graham (to quote the words of Sheridan) was in the hour of peril their best adviser, in the hour of disaster their surest consolation. In 1811 he fought and won the memorable battle of Barossa, notable among other reasons as the first fight in which the English captured a French eagle. Hastening to join Wellington, he arrived in time to be present at the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. At Vitoria he led the English left wing, and after taking St Sebastian, crossed the Bidassoa, and was the first to take possession of the soil of France with British troops. He received the thanks of parliament for his numerous services, and in 1814 was made a baron of the empire with the title of Lord Lynedoch. In 1826 he was appointed governor of Dumbarton Castle, and before his death had received as many orders and decorations as any general in the British service, Wellington alone excepted. Sir Walter Scott pays him a touching tribute at the close of the Vision of Don Roderick :—
"Nor be his praise o'erpast, who strove to hide
Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound;
Whose wish heaven for his country's weal denied;
Danger and fate he sought, but glory found.
From clime to clime, where'er was trumpet's sound
The wanderer went; yet, Caledonia, still
Thine was his thought in march and tented ground;
He dreamed 'mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill,
And heard in Ebro's roar his Lynedoch's lovely rill."
"Never," said Sheridan, "was there seated a loftier spirit in a braver heart." Lord Lynedoch died at London, Dec. 18, 1843, in the 94th (or if we assign his birth to 1748, in the 96th) year of his age. He died without issue, and his title is consequently extinct.