Thomas Osbert Mordaunt

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Lieutenant-General | name = Thomas Osbert Mordaunt | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}} | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | other_name = | nickname = | birth_date = 1730 | birth_place = London | death_date = {{death date and age|1809|02|13|1730|01|01|df=y}} | death_place = St James's, London | burial_place = All Saints Church, Fulham | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = British Army | service_years = | rank = Lieutenant-General | unit = 10th Dragoons | commands = | known_for = | battles = {{Tree list}} *Seven Years' War **Battle of Warburg {{Tree list/end}} | awards = | memorials = | alma_mater = | spouse =  | children = | relations = Scrope Howe, 1st Viscount Howe (grandfather)<br/>William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe (cousin)<br/>Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (cousin) | other_work = | signature = }} Lieutenant-General '''Thomas Osbert Mordaunt''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}} (1730 – 13 February 1809) was a British Army officer and poet, known for "The Call".

==Military career== Thomas Osbert Mordaunt was the son of Colonel Charles Mordaunt and Anne Howe. His grandfather, Brigadier-General Lewis Mordaunt, was the younger brother of Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, sometime First Lord of the Treasury.<ref>The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom: Moels to Nuneham, G. E. Cokayne, The St Catherine Press, 1936, pg 203</ref><ref name="Earls">{{cite web|url=http://www.mordaunt.me.uk/earls.html |title=Mordaunt Family History and Genealogy Resource|access-date=1 December 2017}}</ref> He was commissioned ensign and lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards on 27 January 1753, and promoted captain-lieutenant in the 10th Regiment of Dragoons on 25 December 1755.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mackinnon |first=Daniel |authorlink=Daniel Mackinnon |title=Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards |volume=II |publisher=Richard Bentley |location=London |year=1833 |pages=486–487 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WJCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA486}}</ref> He was further promoted to captain in 1759.{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|p=496}}

Mordaunt served with the regiment in Europe during the Seven Years' War. At the Battle of Warburg on 31 July 1760 the squadron he served in was volleyed twice by a regiment of German grenadiers, and his commanding officer was killed. Taking command of the survivors, Mordaunt charged the Germans, capturing 300 men and two brass cannon.{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|pp=48–49}} Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel described it as one of the "prodigies of valour", and the captured cannon were displayed at the Tower of London.{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|p=49}} Mordaunt was promoted to major in 1764,{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|p=498}} and then advanced to command the regiment as a lieutenant-colonel on 25 October 1770.{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|p=487}}{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|p=57}} He was promoted to colonel on 25 November the following year, and remained in command through the American Revolutionary War, spending most of the war garrisoned in Scotland.{{sfnp|Liddell|1891|p=58}}{{sfnp|Military Register|1779|p=46}}

Mordaunt was promoted to major-general on 26 November 1782 and advanced to lieutenant-general on 18 October 1793.<ref>{{London Gazette|page=1|issue=12391|date=23 November 1782}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|page=913|issue=13582|date=15 October 1793}}</ref> Having not been promoted any further, he died at his house in St James's, London, on 13 February 1809.<ref>{{cite news|date=4 March 1809|page=3|title=Died|work=The Lancaster Gazette|location=Lancaster}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=28 February 1809|page=7|title=Deaths|work=The Edinburgh Advertiser|location=Edinburgh}}</ref>

==Poetry== Mordaunt is best remembered for his oft-quoted poem "The Call", written during the Seven Years' War of 1756–1763:

: "Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! : Throughout the sensual world proclaim, : One crowded hour of glorious life : Is worth an age without a name."

For many years, the poem was incorrectly attributed to Mordaunt's contemporary, Sir Walter Scott. Scott had merely quoted a stanza of the poem at the beginning of Chapter 34 (Chapter XIII of Volume II) of his novel ''Old Mortality''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Old Mortality, by Sir Walter Scott|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6941/6941-h/6941-h.htm#Alink2HCH0013|access-date=2021-09-10|website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>

''One Crowded Hour'', Tim Bowden's biography of Australian combat cameraman Neil Davis, takes its title from a phrase used in "The Call". Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, ''One Crowded Hour'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=One Crowded Hour, by Arthur Conan Doyle|url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=One_Crowded_Hour|access-date=2021-10-17}}</ref> makes ironic use of the same phrase. The band Augie March had a song called ‘’One Crowded Hour’’ in its honour.

==Citations== {{reflist}}

==References== *{{cite book|last=Liddell|first=Robert Spencer|year=1891|title=The Memoirs of the Tenth Royal Hussars|location=London|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co|oclc=1402664460}} *{{cite book|title=The Military Register|location=London|publisher=Alexander Donaldson|year=1779|ref={{harvid|Military Register|1779}}}}

==External links== * [http://www.mordaunt.me.uk/earls.html Expanded biography at Mordaunt Family History website] * Full text of "The Call"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mordaunt}} Category:1730 births Category:1809 deaths Category:British poets Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:British male poets Category:Coldstream Guards officers Category:10th Royal Hussars officers Category:British Army personnel of the Seven Years' War Category:British Army lieutenant generals