{{Short description|British Army general}} {{Use British English |date=February 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = [[Lieutenant general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] |name= Sir James Holmes Schoedde |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} |image=James Holmes Schoedde.jpg |caption= |birth_date=1786 |birth_place= |death_date=14 November 1861 |death_place= |burial_place= |allegiance={{flag|United Kingdom}} |service_years= |rank= [[Lieutenant General (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] |branch={{army|United Kingdom}} |commands= |unit= |battles=[[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|Egyptian Campaign]]<br />[[Peninsular War]]<br />[[First Opium War]] |awards=[[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]] }} [[Lieutenant General (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] '''Sir James Holmes Schoedde''' [[Order of the Bath|KCB]] (1786 – 14 November 1861) was a [[British Army]] officer who became colonel of the [[Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)|2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot]] and the [[55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot|55th Regiment of Foot]].
==Early life== James Holmes Schoëdde was born in 1786 and was a 'child of the regiment'. His father, Lieutenant Colonel C Lewis Theodore Schoëdde, had entered the [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|60th]] in the year 1780, and left it as lieutenant-colonel in 1805.<ref name=rigaud>{{cite book |last=Rigaud |first=Gibbes |year=1879 |title=Celer et Audax, A Sketch of the Services of the Fifth Battalion, Sixtieth Regiment (Rifles) During the Twenty Years of Their Existence |pages=273–277 }}</ref>
==Military career== When only in his fifteenth year, Schoëdde obtained an [[Ensign (rank)|ensigncy]] in Lowenstein’s Levy (Lowenstein’s Light Infantry Regiment) in May 1800.<ref name=qrs>{{cite web|url=http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/colonels/026.html|title=Lieutenant General Sir James Holmes Schoedde KCB 1856-1857|publisher=Queen’s Royal Surreys|accessdate=24 February 2016|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924083729/http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/colonels/026.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He served in the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|campaign in Egypt]] in 1801, and for his services received the Gold Medal from the Grand Seignior.{{efn|The regiment fought in Egypt 1801. It was disbanded in May 1802 and incorporated into the 5th battalion of the [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|60th Regiment]].}} In April 1802, he was appointed to the 5th battalion of the [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|60th Regiment]], and became a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] when nineteen years old in 1805, and did not obtain another step in regimental rank for twenty years.<ref name=rigaud/>
He embarked with Major Davy in the ‘Malabar’ transport at [[Cork (city)|Cork]] (June 1808), and returned there in 1814 with Major Galiffe, having been in almost every one of Wellington’s battles and sieges (besides innumerable minor affairs), with the exception of [[Battle of Albuera|Albuera]].<ref name=rigaud/>
He took part in the [[Battle of Roliça]] in August 1808, the [[Battle of Vimeiro]] also in August 1808, the [[Battle of Talavera]] in July 1809, the [[Battle of Bussaco]] in September 1810, the [[Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro]] in May 1811 and the [[Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812)|Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo]] in January 1812 during the [[Peninsular War]].<ref name=qrs/> He was also present at the [[Siege of Badajoz (1812)|Siege of Badajoz]] in March 1812, the [[Battle of Salamanca]] in July 1812, the [[Battle of Vitoria]] in June 1813, the [[Battle of the Pyrenees]] in July 1813, the [[Battle of Nivelle]] in November 1813, the [[Battle of the Nive]] in December 1813, the [[Battle of Orthez]] in February 1814 and the [[Battle of Toulouse (1814)|Battle of Toulouse]] in April 1814.<ref name=qrs/>
For these services, he later received the [[Military General Service Medal]] with fourteen clasps.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dnw.co.uk/resources/medal-rolls/entry.php?medalroll_id=1&entry_id=20920 |title=Schoedde, Sir James Holmes: Military General Service Medal Roll|publisher=DNW|accessdate=10 August 2018}}</ref>{{efn|It is worth noting that, by comparison, the Duke of Wellington could also have been awarded just 14 clasps}} He, as well as Galiffe, was given the [[Army Gold Medal]] for Nivelle, and he was promoted [[Brevet (military)|brevet-major]] for Vittoria.{{efn|At the Battle of the Nivelle Major Neville Galiffe was given command of the composite Light Battalion of his Division. The three Rifle Companies of the 5/60th were commanded by Major Schoëdde, who was awarded the Gold Medal in consequence. Because he had the Gold Medal, he could not be granted the Nivelle clasp for the MGSM.<ref>Annals of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Vol II, p.203. London 1923</ref>}} He served in Gibraltar from 1816 to 1818, in Canada from 1818 to 1824, and then, having returned home, and having been promoted [[Major (rank)|major]] in January 1825, he went with the 1st battalion 60th Regiment to revisit some of the scenes of his former services in Portugal, with the force known as ‘Canning’s expedition’. They remained in Portugal 1826 and 1827. Schoëdde returned home in the latter year, and served with the 60th until March 1829, when he was promoted to an unattached [[lieutenant-colonel]]cy.<ref name=rigaud/>
In June 1830 he became lieutenant-colonel of the [[48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot|48th regiment]] and in March 1833 went to command the [[55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot|55th regiment]], in which he continued in command for twelve years.<ref name=rigaud/>
The greater part of his time in the 48th and 55th was actively employed, for from 30 October to 6 November 1841, he was in the East Indies, and from 7 November 1841 to February 1844 in China.<ref name=rigaud/> In 1841-42 there was [[First Opium War|war in China]], and Schoëdde (who had become colonel in the army in November 1841) commanded the left column at the affair of [[Zhapu|Chapoo]]; and as major-general in 1842 under Lieutenant General [[Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough|Sir Hugh Gough]] he commanded the 2nd brigade at the escalade and storming of [[Battle of Chinkiang|Tching-Kiang-Foo]].<ref name=qrs/>
Gough thanked him in his dispatch from Chapoo dated 20 May 1841. And again, in his dispatch from Tching-Kiang-Foo dated 25 July 1842, he used the following words: ‘I cannot too strongly express my approval of the spirited and judicious way in which Major-General Schoëdde fulfilled my orders’.<ref name=rigaud/> His name was included in the vote of thanks from both Houses of Parliament for the ‘energy, ability, and gallantry with which the various services had been performed’; and having been made ADC to the Queen on 25 November 1841, and colonel in the army, he was, on the 23 December 1842, made [[major-general]] in India, [[Knight Commander of the Bath]], and received the [[China War Medal (1842)|medal for the China campaign]].<ref name=rigaud/>
In November 1845, Schoëdde exchanged to [[half-pay]], having been forty-five years on active service and being sixty years of age.<ref name=rigaud/> He became a major-general on 20 June 1854.<ref name=rigaud/> He went on to be colonel of the [[2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot]] on 9 November 1856<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=21943|page=3827|date=21 November 1856}}</ref> and colonel of the 55th Regiment of Foot on 28 May 1857.<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=22025|page=2611|date=28 May 1856}}</ref>
On 14 November 1861 he died at 'Elcombe', his home at [[Lyndhurst, Hampshire|Lyndhurst]] in the [[New Forest]], and was buried in Saint Michael and All Angels churchyard; in the church his old friend and adjutant, General Sir Henry Charles Barnston Daubeny, placed a very large and handsome brass plate to the memory of ‘Lieut.-General Sir James Holmes Schoëdde, KCB, aged seventy-five years’.<ref name=rigaud/>
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist |30em}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box | title=Colonel of the [[Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)|2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot]] | before=[[John Rolt (British Army officer)|Sir John Rolt]] | after=[[John Spink|Sir John Spink]] | years=1856–1857}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoedde, James}} [[Category:1786 births]] [[Category:1861 deaths]] [[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]] [[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]