Hardinge
VISCOUNT, a British soldier and governor-general of India; born in Wrotham, Kent, England, March 30, 1785. Gazetted an ensign in 1798, he served through the Peninsular war, being wounded at Vimiera and Vittoria, and taking a decisive part in the sanguinary contest at Albuera. From 1809 to 1813 he was also attached to the Portuguese army as a deputy quartermastergeneral. On the renewal of hostilities after Napoleon's escape from Elba, he hastened to join Wellington, who appointed him commissioner at the Prussian headquarters. In consequence of a severe wound received at Ligny he was unable to take part in the battle of Waterloo. From 1820 to 1844 he was active in Parliament, holding the office of Secretary of War under Wellington in 1828, and afterward the chief secretaryship of Ireland under the same duke and under Peel. In 1844 he was appointed governor-general of India. He was present at the battles of Mudki, Firozshah, and Sobraon in the first Sikh war, as second in command to Lord Gough. After the peace of Lahore (1845) he was created a viscount, and HARDY granted a pension of $25,000 by the East India Company as well as one of $15,000 for three lives by Parliament.
Four years after his return to England he succeeded (1852) Wellington as commander-in-chief of the British army. In 1855 he was made field-marshal. In July of the following year he resigned the office of commander-in-chief, and died in South Park, near Tunbridge, England, Sept. 24, 1856.