Hay MacDowall

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|honorific-prefix =

|name = Hay MacDowall

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|order = 6th

|office = General Officer Commanding, Ceylon

|term_start = 19 July 1799

|term_end = 1804

|predecessor = Josiah Champagne

|successor = David Douglas Wemyss

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|birth_date = {{circa}} 1752

|birth_place = Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

|death_date = {{circa}} 16 March 1809

|death_place = At sea, off Cape of Good Hope

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|allegiance = United Kingdom

|branch = British Army

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|rank = Lieutenant general

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|commands = General Officer Commanding, Ceylon
Madras Army

|battles = Napoleonic Wars
Kandyan Wars

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}}

Lieutenant-General Hay MacDowall ({{circa}} 1752 – {{circa}} 16 March 1809) was a Scottish officer in the British Army who was the sixth General Officer Commanding, Ceylon. He was appointed on 19 July 1799. He was succeeded by David Douglas Wemyss. Fort MacDowall in Matale was named due to his involvement during Kandyan Wars. Only the remnants of gateway and portion of the ramparts are exist today.{{cite web | url=http://amazinglanka.com/wp/fort-macdowall/ | title=Fort MacDowall at Matale | date=9 November 2013 | publisher=AmazingLanka.com | accessdate=25 November 2014}}

Biography

MacDowall hailed from Garthland Mains, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, where the family seat was Garthland Castle.{{cite book |last1=Keltie |first1=Sir John Scott |title=History of the Scottish Highlands: Highland Clans and Highland Regiments, with an Account of the Gaelic Language, Literature, and Music |date=1887 |publisher=T.C. Jack |page=596 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rNCAQAAMAAJ&q=general+Hay+MacDowall&pg=PA596 |accessdate=30 June 2018 |language=en}} He was the fourth son of William MacDowell ({{circa}} 1719–1784), M.P. for Renfrewshire, and Elizabeth Graham, granddaughter of Alexander Livingstone, 3rd Earl of Callendar. His brothers William MacDowall ({{circa}} 1749–1810) and Captain David McDowall-Grant (1761–1841) were Members of Parliament. His nephew was Lt. Gen.

Day Hort MacDowall (1795–1870) and great-nephew was Canadian politician Day Hort MacDowall (1850–1927).{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Sir Bernard |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1863 |publisher=Harrison |page=937 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni4BAAAAQAAJ&q=Hay+MacDowall&pg=PA937 |accessdate=30 June 2018 |language=en}}

In August 1782, he was the commanding officer of the fort of Trincomalee when the French lay siege to it in the run-up to the Battle of Trincomalee. He surrendered to Suffren on 30 August in exchange for safe passage to Madras for his 1,000-man garrison.{{sfnp|Hennequin|1835|p=312}}{{sfnp|Cunat|1852|p=210}}

Later life and disappearance

MacDowall was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 57th Regiment of Foot in 1791{{London Gazette|issue=13297|page=213|date=5 April 1791}} and served in Flanders in 1793 and later as commander-in-chief in Ceylon from 1798 to 1804. In 1802, as a Major-General, he was appointed Colonel commandant of a Battalion of the 40th Regiment of Foot in place of Lord Hutchinson.{{London Gazette|issue=15464|page=304|date=23 March 1802}} He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army in 1807.[https://books.google.com/books?id=3VQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA123 The India List and India Office List] He was made Colonel of the 41st Regiment of Foot in 1808.{{London Gazette|issue=16145|page=682|date=14 May 1805}} Following a period of dispute with the civil government of Madras over his exclusion from its council, and the affair of the arrest of Quartermaster-General John Munro, he resigned his commission in January 1809 and took ship for England on the East Indiaman Lady Jane Dundas.Taylor, S. Storm and Conquest: The Battle for the Indian Ocean, 1808-10. Faber & Faber, London. The ship was lost with all hands near the Cape of Good Hope in March 1809.[http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Britain/Infantry/Regiments/c_78thFoot.html Napoleonic Series]

Notes

Citations

References

{{cite book |last1=Cunat |first1=Charles |authorlink1=Charles Cunat|title=Histoire du Bailli de Suffren |date=1852 |publisher=A. Marteville et Lefas |location=Rennes |pages=447 |url=https://archive.org/details/histoiredubaill00torpgoog}}
{{cite book|title=Biographie maritime ou notices historiques sur la vie et les campagnes des marins célèbres français et étrangers|last=Hennequin|first=Joseph François Gabriel|author-link=Joseph François Gabriel Hennequin|year=1835|publisher=Regnault éditeur|location=Paris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbdCAAAAYAAJ|language=French|volume=2|pages=289–332}}