Maurice Lacy, or Maurice de Lacy, in Russian Бори́с Петро́вич Ла́сси (1740 – January 1820), born in Ireland, was a Russian general. He took part in the

Italian and Swiss expedition of 1799 The Italian and Swiss expedition of 1799 was a military campaign undertaken by a combined Austro-Russian army under overall command of the Russian Marshal Alexander Suvorov against French forces in Piedmont and Lombardy (modern Italy) and the ...

and the

Anglo-Russian occupation of Naples The Anglo-Russian occupation of Naples was the stationing of British and Russian forces in the Kingdom of Naples from the summer of 1805 until January 1806 during the War of the Third Coalition. Background A previous cooperation in July 1799 be ...

of 1805.

Life

Lacy, of

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

, belonged to a branch of the family of

Peter Lacy Peter Graf von Lacy (; ; ; 26 September 1678 – 30 April 1751) was an Irish-born soldier who later served in the Imperial Russian army. Considered one of the most successful Russian Imperial commanders before Rumyantsev and Suvorov, in a ...

. He was born in

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

, Ireland, during the great frost of 1739–40, one of two sons and four daughters of Patrick de Lacy (died 1790) of Rathcahill and Templeglentan, and his wife Lady Mary Herbert. Maurice was said to have been brought up in an Irish convent. His kinsmen included notable immigrant soldiers in Russia, and taking advantage of these connections, he obtained a commission in the Russian army; he fought against the Turks, and attained general's rank, with which he revisited Ireland in 1792–3. He went back to Russia, and held command under Marshal

Alexander Suvorov Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy () was a Russian general and military theorist in the service of the Russian Empire. Born in Moscow, he studied military history as a young boy and joined the Imperial Russian ...

in the campaigns against the French in Switzerland and Italy.

1805 occupation of Naples

In 1805, at the time of the

, he was sent to Naples to command an Anglo-Russian force against the French.

Sir Henry Bunbury, 7th Baronet Sir Henry Edward Bunbury, 7th Baronet (4 March 1778 – 13 April 1860) was a British soldier and historian. Life Sir Henry, son of the famous caricaturist, Henry William Bunbury and Catherine Horneck, was educated at Westminster, and served on ...

was quartermaster-general of the small British force sent to Naples in that year under Sir

James Henry Craig General Sir James Henry Craig KB (1748 – 12 January 1812) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor general of British North America from 1807 to 1811. Early life and military service Craig came from a ...

; speaking of an auxiliary force of fourteen thousand Russians and two thousand Montenegrins sent there from the Greek islands, under the Russian general D'Anrep, he observes in ''Narratives of Some Passages in the Great War with France'' that D'Anrep was subordinate to General Lacy, who was residing at Naples under the pretence of ill-health, but prepared by his sovereign's order to take the chief command when the time should come to put the troops in movement. He had been a brave and meritorious officer, "but showed no traces of ever having been a man of talent or information."

Bunbury's reminiscences

Bunbury adds: "He spoke English with the strongest brogue I ever heard, and with peculiarities that I have never met with, except in the Teagues of our old comedies." He used to bring his nightcap in his pocket when he attended a council of war, and put it on and go to sleep while others discussed the business. "But the old gentleman was simple and kind-hearted, and, in his own words, 'always for fighting (Bunbury, pp. 191–2).

Last years

Lacy played no prominent part in later campaigns. He was governor of Grodno, where he possessed estates. Lacy and his sister, Mrs Johanna O'Brien, who died before him, outlived their brother and sisters. His nephew, Maurice Pierre, entered the Russian service and died at Edirne during the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

of 1828–9. Lacy died unmarried in Grodno in January 1820.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacy, Maurice 1740 births 1820 deaths Military personnel from County Limerick Imperial Russian Army generals Immigrants to the Russian Empire People from Grodno