Colonel Thomas Crewe Dod

Thomas Crewe Dod was born on 9 July 1754, the son of Thomas Dod of Edge Hall, Cheshire. He entered the army as a cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons on 2 Aug 1775. He served in America under General John Burgoyne in 1776 and the next year he returned to England and transferred to the 21st Light Dragoons as a lieutenant. On 28 Sep 1871 General Burgoyne’s cousin, Colonel Sir John Burgoyne, was ordered to raise the 23rd Light Dragoons, and Thomas Dod was transferred to the 23rd as a captain. In 1782 the regiment went to India, the first British cavalry regiment to do so, and stayed there for 30 years. Major Dod left the regiment in 1785 a year before they were re-numbered 19th, a designation they kept for the next 140 years. He returned to Cheshire to run his estate but in Jan 1897 he joined the Provisional Cavalry until it was disbanded in 1802 and then became lieutenant-colonel commandant of the Western Cheshire Yeomanry on 12 Sep 1803. in 1805 he was appointed Inspector of Yeomanry and Volunteers. He was married to Anne Sneyd in 1786 and they had 8 children. He died in 1827, and as his two sons did not have children the estate of Edge Hill was passed to the Rev Charles Wooley husband of Dod’s grand-daughter Frances. The portrait of Captain Thomas Dod shows him in a blue uniform with pale yellow facings and silver buttons. This is the uniform of the 23rd Light Dragoons which became the 19th LD in 1786.

Regimental Details | Cheshire Yeomanry Soldiers