Francis Rawdon Hastings (9 December 1754-28 November 1826) was the Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1823, succeeding Gilbert Elliott-Murray-Kynynmound and preceding John Adam, and Governor of Malta from 22 March 1824 to 28 November 1826, succeeding Thomas Maitland and preceding Alexander George Woodford. Hastings served as a Major-General of the British Army during the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars, distinguishing himself as Henry Clinton's second-in-command and later as the de facto commander of British and loyalist forces in the southern theatre.
Biography[]
Francis Rawdon Hastings was born on 9 December 1754 in County Down, Ireland, and he joined the British Army as an ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot on 7 August 1771. Rawdon befriended Banastre Tarleton at Oxford before being deployed to the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War, fighting at the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, holding the British ensign at the battle. Rawdon became Henry Clinton's aide-de-camp, serving under him at the Battle of Long Island on 27 August 1776, and he would fight in several battles in the New York City campaign. In the winter of 1775, he formed a volunteer regiment, the "Volunteers of Ireland", consisting of Continental Army deserters and Irish loyalists. On 15 January 1780, he led his regiment in the defense of Staten Island by William Alexander's Continentals before being sent to Charleston in South Carolina to assist in the siege. When Charles Cornwallis withdrew into Virginia, Rawdon became the de facto leader of the British forces in the South during the war against the patriots. In 1781, he defeated Nathanael Greene's numerically-superior patriot army at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, allowing him to begin a retreat towards the port of Charleston. Rawdon later grew ill, departing from the colonies in July 1781; his ship was captured by Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse and the French Navy. Rawdon would serve as Grand Master of the Freemasons from 1806 to 1808 after leading a raid on Ostend in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars, and he died in 1826 while serving as governor of Malta.