{{Short description|British Army general}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = General |name= Richard Vyse |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRSE}} |image=Memorial to Richard Vyse in Lichfield Cathedral.jpg |caption=Memorial to Richard Vyse in Lichfield Cathedral |birth_date= {{Birth date|df=yes|1746|7|11}} |death_date= {{death date and age|df=yes|1825|5|30|1746|7|11}} |birth_place= Lichfield, Staffordshire |death_place= Lichfield, Staffordshire |burial_place= |burial_label= |allegiance=United Kingdom |branch=British Army |service_years=1763–1825 |rank= General |unit= |commands=1st Dragoon Guards<br/>Scottish Command<br/>Yorkshire District |battles={{Tree list}} *American Revolutionary War *French Revolutionary Wars **Flanders Campaign ***Battle of Beaumont *Napoleonic Wars {{tree list/end}} |relations= Richard William Howard Vyse (son) }}
General '''Richard Vyse''' FRSE (or '''Vise'''; 11 July 1746 – 30 May 1825) was a British Army officer, and briefly a Member of Parliament for Beverley.<ref>D.R. Fisher, 'Vyse, Richard (1746-1825)', in R. Thorne (ed.), ''The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1790-1820'' (from Boydell and Brewer 1986), [https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/vyse-richard-1746-1825 History of Parliament Online].</ref>
==Life== The family's earlier history in Staffordshire is outlined by the editor of Erdeswicke.<ref>S. Erdeswicke (ed. T. Harwood), ''A Survey of Staffordshire: Containing the Antiquities of that County'' New, improved edition (J.B. Nichols and Son, London 1844), [https://books.google.com/books?id=yaRCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA120 pp. 120–21] (Google).</ref> Vyse was born at Lichfield, Staffordshire the younger son of William Vyse (1710–1770), canon residentiary and treasurer of Lichfield<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://lichfield-cathedral.org/whos-who.html |title=Lichfield Cathedral - Who's Who |access-date=31 July 2008 |archive-date=19 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719084247/http://lichfield-cathedral.org/whos-who.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and his wife Catherine Smalbroke, and younger brother of William Vyse (1741–1816), canon residentiary and chancellor of Lichfield. He married twice: first, in 1771, he married Anna Susannah Spearman, who died without issue a year later and was buried at St Chad's, Stowe. In 1780, he married Anne,<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/search_results.aspx?st=q&querytext=richard%20vyse Copy (on paper) of articles previous to the marriage of Richard Vyse and Miss Anne Howard <nowiki>[no ref.]</nowiki> 10 May 1780] at Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies</ref> the only surviving daughter and heiress of Field-marshal Sir George Howard and his wife Lucy Wentworth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Strafford, and became the father of Major-General Howard Vyse, anthropologist and Egyptologist, and his sister Georgiana Anne Vyse.<ref>W. Newling and J.C. Woodhouse, ''A Short Account of Lichfield Cathedral'', Fourth Edition, with additions and an engraving (T.G. Lomax, Lichfield 1834), [https://books.google.com/books?id=xf9dAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA83 p. 83] (Google).</ref>
Vyse was appointed cornet in the 5th Dragoons on 13 February 1763. He attained the brevet rank of colonel on 7 January 1781, received the command of the 1st Dragoon Guards on 28 May 1784, and during the revolutionary war served in Flanders in command of a brigade under the Duke of York. He distinguished himself on several occasions, particularly at the Battle of Beaumont on 26 April 1794, where at the head of two brigades of heavy cavalry, he materially contributed to the victory, and at the evacuation of Ostend, which he superintended on 1 July.
Vyse was nominated major-general on 2 October 1794, and lieutenant-general on 1 January 1801. In 1799 he was appointed Commander of Forces in Scotland and based at Edinburgh Castle. During his time in Edinburgh, in 1804, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Ninian Imrie, John Clerk, and Thomas Charles Hope. In 1805 he left Scotland to become Commanding Officer of the Yorkshire district.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=19 February 2019|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
He was returned to parliament in 1806 for Beverley, but in the following year made way for his son, Howard Vyse. He attained the rank of general on 1 January 1812, and died at Lichfield on 30 May 1825. He filled for some time the office of comptroller to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.<ref>'General Richard Vyse', ''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. 95 Part 2 (1825), [https://books.google.com/books?id=s2g3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA180 p. 180] (Google)</ref><ref>'Succession of Colonels: Richard Vyse', in ''Historical Records of the Third, or Prince of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards'' (By Command, London 1838), [https://archive.org/details/recordofthirdorp00canniala/page/126/mode/2up pp. 127–28] (Internet Archive).</ref> He was buried in Lichfield Cathedral near his parents: in 1827 his sister Mary (1745-1827), who had become the second wife of Spencer Madan, Lord Bishop of Peterborough, was buried beside him in the same vault.<ref>W. Newling and J.C. Woodhouse, ''A Short Account of Lichfield Cathedral'', Fourth Edition, with additions and an engraving (T.G. Lomax, Lichfield 1834), [https://books.google.com/books?id=xf9dAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA82 pp. 81–83] (Google).</ref> Their sister Catherine in 1768 became the second wife of Sir George Smith, 1st Bart., was widowed in the following year, and died in 1786.<ref>B. Redford (ed.), ''The Letters of Samuel Johnson'', Vol II: 1773-1776 (Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey 1992), [https://books.google.com/books?id=pCsABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA222 p. 222 note 3] (Google), citing A.L. Reade, ''Johnsonian Gleanings'', Vol. 5: The Doctor's Life, 1728-1735 (London 1928), p. 211; Vol. 11: Consolidated Index of Persons (London 1952), p. 436.</ref>
==Family==
He married Anne Howard, daughter of Field Marshal George Howard. They had one son, who was a Lt Colonel in the Life Guards and one daughter, who was Maid of Honour to Queen Charlotte.<ref>Kay's Originals vol.2 p.350</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-richard-vyse | Richard Vyse }} ;Archival documents *[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=143-ms-1098&cid=0#0 Smalbroke family of Birmingham MS 1098] includes Vyse family at Birmingham City Archives.* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=P29418 Vyse, Richard (1746-1825) MP General 131255] at National Register of Archives.
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Vyse, Richard William Howard}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = Napier Christie Burton | before2 = John Wharton }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Beverley | years = 1806–1807 | with = John Wharton }} {{s-aft | after=Howard Vyse | after2=John Wharton }} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef | before=William Fawcett}} {{s-ttl | title=Colonel of the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards | years=1804–1825}} {{s-aft | after=Sir William Payne-Gallwey}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vyse, Richard}} Category:1746 births Category:1825 deaths Category:British Army generals Category:3rd Dragoon Guards officers Category:5th Royal Irish Lancers officers Category:1st The Royal Dragoons officers Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1802–1806 Category:People from Lichfield Category:British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War Category:British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Military personnel from Staffordshire