General Sir James Steuart Bt GCH


James Steuart was born in August 1744, the son of James, 2nd Baronet of Coltness in Lanarkshire. His mother was Lady Frances daughter of the Earl of Wemyss. Sir James the elder supported the Jacobites and had to go into exile. He chose to live in Tubingen to give his son an education at the university. James was only two when his parents went abroad but he was left in Scotland with a family at Caldwell. He was then educated at Angouleme, then in 1757 went to the university at Tubingen. In 1761 he entered the army as a cornet in the 1st Dragoons and served abroad in the Seven Years War. The portrait shows him as a young man, painted by Wolfgang Dietrich Mayer in the uniform of the 1st Royal Dragoons.

In 1763 he went on half pay and took the opportunity to study cavalry tactics in France and Germany. After a spell in Ireland serving in the 5th Dragoons he joined the 13th Dragoons and from 1776 he commanded them for 15 years during which time he took great pains to convert them to the light dragoon role. His father was pardoned in 1771 and in 1773 inherited from his cousin Sir Archibald Steuart Denham, and in 1776 inherited the estate of Westshield from Sir William Lockhart Denham. It was then that James Steuart adopted the name Denham so that he was called Sir James Steuart Denham.

He was appointed Colonel of the 12th Dragoons in Nov 1791 until 12 Jan 1815. Throughout the 1790s he was responsible for organising Fencible cavalry in Scotland, but he suffered from rheumatism and depression. In 1815, with the rank of General, he became Colonel of the Scots Greys. He died at Cheltenham on 12 Aug 1839. He was survived by his wife Alicia who he married in 1772. They had no children.


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by Stephen Luscombe