Francis Forde ( – disappeared 27 December 1769) was an Anglo-Irish army officer. Born in

Seaforde Seaforde is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Naghan,County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, he was the seventh son of Irish parliamentarian Mathew Forde. He entered

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

in 1734 and left with a B.A. in 1738. Pursuing a military career, he was commissioned into the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

's 39th Regiment of Foot before serving with the

Bengal Army The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Gover ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

under

Robert Clive Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British List of governors of Bengal Presidency, Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for l ...

during the Carnatic Wars.

Early Indian service

He first arrived in India in the mid-1740s during the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italian Peninsula, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King Ge ...

. By 1746, he was a Captain in the 39th Regiment of Foot. In 1755, at the request of Clive he resigned his commission in the

to serve in

of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. He was soon the British second in command in Bengal following the Battle of Calcutta. He served with Clive in the subsequent

Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French Indies Company, French allies on 23 June 1757. The victory was made possible by the de ...

. On the first anniversary, he threw a major party in honour of the victory.Harvey p.237

Masulipatam

Forde was then given a detachment of troops and ordered to drive the French from

Masulipatam Machilipatnam (), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar (), is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and the administrative headquarters of Krishna district. It is also the mandal headqua ...

. He was badly supported by a local ally Anandraz but still managed to rout the French force at the

Battle of Condore The Battle of Condore took place near Masulipatam on 9 December 1758 during the Third Carnatic War, part of the Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant ...

and overrun their camp, before laying siege to Masulipatem itself. His forces then stormed the town on 25 January 1759 losing a third of their number. He was widely commended for his leadership during the campaign.

Chinsurah

Later that year he returned to Bengal and won the

Battle of Chinsurah The Battle of Chinsurah, also known as the Battle of Biderra or the Battle of Hoogly, took place on 25 November 1759 near Chinsurah during the Seven Years' War. It was fought between forces of the British East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch ...

removing the Dutch threat to British power in Bengal.

Later life

Despite these twin victories, Forde's

brevet promotion Brevet may refer to: Military * Brevet (military), higher rank that rewards merit or gallantry, but without higher pay * Brevet d'état-major, a military distinction in France and Belgium awarded to officers passing military staff college * Aircre ...

to lieutenant colonel was not initially ratified by the East India Company. It was only with the personal intervention of Clive that he was eventually given a formal promotion. He then returned to Ireland for several years, where he lived in Johnstown in

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

. In 1769, he was sent out as part of a three-man committee, with

Henry Vansittart Henry Vansittart (3 June 1732 – 1770) was an English colonial administrator, who was the Governor of Bengal from 1759 to 1764. Life Vansittart was born in Bloomsbury in Middlesex, the third son of Arthur van Sittart (1691–1760), and his wi ...

and

Luke Scrafton Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luk ...

, to investigate the

's practices. They set sail in the frigate ''Aurora'' in September 1769. The vessel left the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

on 27 December 1769, but the ship disappeared en route to India and he was believed drowned with the rest of the passengers and crew. The captain had decided to navigate the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (, , ) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long and across at its narrowest point, and reaches a depth of about off the coa ...

despite bad weather.Article by H M Stephens, revised by D J Prior. Colonel Forde married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Bowerbank. His son Robert Forde succeeded to the property at Johnstown in

and later became MP for the county.

References

Bibliography