Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Downman KCB KCH

Thomas Downman, born in 1776, was the elder son (the only male out of 5 children) of Lt-Col Francis Downman RA and Jane Day. Thomas’s father had a distinguished career in America and the West Indies as an artillery officer. Thomas Downman entered the RA in April 1793 after attending RMA Woolwich. He served in the Netherlands and was at Cateau, Lannoy, Rauxhain and Mourveaux. He was captured at Tournai by the French on 18 May 1794 in the retreat from Mourveaux.
In July 1795 he was appointed to B Troop RHA and promoted to captain-lieutenant in Nov 1797. In 1798 he served in San Domingo in the West Indies until Nov 1800. He was sick and sent home, but in 1802 was promoted to captain and within 2 years was in command of A Troop RHA. They went to Spain in 1809, attached to the cavalry division under Lord Paget. The Troop distinguished themselves at Sahagun and Buenevente. After the return to England following the retreat to Corunna he was a brevet major and sent back to the Peninsula in command of the artillery reinforcements sent to the lines of Torres Vedras. At Fuentes d’Onor he was commanding the whole of the horse artillery. He served in all the major actions in the Peninsula in 1811, and in 1812 in charge of the foot and horse artillery in the rearguard of the retreat from Burgos, and especially mentioned by Wellington for his bravery at Celada. He was decorated with a gold medal for his services.
He was a lieutenant-colonel when he was invalided to England in 1813. Command of the Horse Artillery was passed to Sir Augustus Frazer but he later commanded the RA Eastern District and then Sussex. He was appointed CB in 1815 and knighted in 1821. He was promoted to Colonel in 1825, and major-general in Jan 1837. Downman was colonel-commandant of the RHA in 1843 and director-general of artillery in the same year. He reached the rank of lieutenant-general in Nov 1846 and elevated to KCB on 6 Apr 1852, but died in August 1852 at Woolwich.
The portrait, c1832, is by Dubois Drahonet who was not proficient at accurate facial likenesses. He wears the dress uniform of the RHA with a light blue ribbon around his neck of the Royal Guelphic Order of Hanover, and the breast badge. It is these decorations that identify the sitter, according to Jenny Spencer-Smith in Portraits for a King: Portraits for a King (NAM 1990). Oddly he does not have the CB or the Gold Medal displayed.

Regimental Details | Commanding Officers