 1783 - 1860 (76 years)
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| Name |
Harris Sir Thomas Noel |
| Birth |
9 Oct 1783 |
Exton in Rutland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
23 Mar 1860 |
Updown House near Ramsgate |
| Person ID |
I304 |
My Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
7 Dec 2023 |
| Family 1 |
Hemsworth Elizabeth / Eliza, b. 1789 d. 1812 (Age 23 years) |
| Marriage |
11 Oct 1804 |
Limerick, Ireland |
| Children |
| + | 1. Col. Harris Hamlyn Lavicount, b. 23 Aug 1805, Limerick, Ireland d. 1 Nov 1869, Bristol (Age 64 years) |
| | 2. Harris Henry Thomas, b. 1806, Limerick d. 1834, died at sea (Age 28 years) |
| | 3. Harris Thomas Noel, b. 1808, Whitwell, Northamptonshire d. 1889, Paddington, London (Age 81 years) |
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| Family ID |
F117 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
29 Jan 2013 |
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| Photos
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 | Order of St Vladimir
|
 | portrait of Sir Thomas Noel Harris
from family collection |
 | 15th Nov 1783 Baptism of Thomas Noel, son of Hamlyn and Elizabeth Harris, at Exton
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 | 1860 Probate of Will for Sir Thomas Noel Harris
Late of Uptown House... Knight a Lieutenant-Colonel of Her Majesty's army... who died 23rd March 1860... Effects under £3000.
(equivalent to £177,00 in 2017 money) |
 | A commemorative Sabre given to Thomas by Edward Solly (a wealthy merchant, who witnessed the battle of Leipzig)
A VERY FINE AND RARE PRESENTATION SABRE FROM EDWARD SOLLY TO THOMAS HARRIS IN COMMEMORATION OF THEIR FELLOWSHIP AT THE MEMORABLE BATTLE OF LEIPZIG
By Webb, Piccadilly, London, Dated 1813
Sold for £43,750 in 2018 by Bonhams
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 | Coatee worn by Thomas Noel Harris at the battle of Waterloo.
Note the torn right sleeve which they had to cut open to amputate his right arm above the elbow after it was shattered by a musket ball.
This is a dress coat Thomas was wearing to a Ball in Brussels when he heard that Napoleon was on the march and immediately left to join his regiment. This is why he was wearing it at the Battle of Quatre Bas and Waterloo three days later.
It is now displayed at the National Army Museum.
Full story here: https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2015-10-1-1 |
 | 1808 all 3 sons of Thomas Noel Harris and Elizabeth Hemsworth were baptised in the same year at Whitwell, Northamptonshire. However the firs 2 had previously been baptised privately in Ireland (probably by their grandfather, Rev Hamlyn Harris?)
Hamlyn and his 2 brothers Henry and Thomas were all baptised on this one record from 1808 at Whitwell in Northamptonshire.
"March 29th 1808 Hamlyn Lavicount son of Captain Thomas Noel Harris and Elizabeth his wife, born Aug 23 1805 at Limerick in Ireland, privately baptised there witness Thomas Noel Harris + Elizabeth Harris.
March 29th, Henry Thomas son of Capt Thomas Noel Harris and Elizabeth his wife, born December 16th 1806 at Limerick in Ireland and privately baptised there, witness Thomas Noel Harris + Elizabeth Harris.
June 18th Thomas Noel, son of Capt Thomas Noel Harris and Elizabeth his wife, born June 14th" |
 | 1861 Obituary to Sir Thomas Noel Harris
As well as his dashing military exploits, it says he was a member of the Kent Archeological Society (!)
source: p.445, Vol 102, 'Annual Register or a view of the history and politics of the year 1860', Edmund Burke 1861 |
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| Notes |
- Thomas led a quite extraordinary life as a soldier in the Napoleonic wars, losing an arm at Waterloo, winning medals, attached to the staff of Wellington and Blucher he would have known all the leading soldiers of his age, Deputy Adjutant General in Canada, Assistant Adjutant General in Ireland, Chief Magistrate of Gibralter, he claimed to have survived 30 battles and many more skirmishes...
He's so dashing he even has his own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Noel_Harris
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Thomas was born on 9 October 1783 and was educated at Uppingham School. He joined the 87th Foot as an Ensign in 1801 aged 17, was a Lieutenant in the 52nd Foot by purchase in 1802 and given the post of Adjutant in the 25th Foot in 1804 on promotion of the previous post-holder. In 1805 he transferred without purchase to the 18th Light Dragoons, stationed in Ireland. This must have been where he had the portrait drawn since XVIII is on his cap (see pic).
On 11 October 1804 in St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, he married Elizabeth Hemsworth (1789 -1836), daughter of Thomas Hemsworth (1758 -1811) of Abbeville, Tipperary, and Mary d'Esterre. Thomas and Elizabeth had three sons.
He became a captain (by purchase) in 1807 in the 18th Light Dragoons, and then exchanged to the 7th regiment. He left the army "not being allowed to exchange to half pay on account of ill health. It was shortly before this period that his only brother had been murdered by savages in Burma and it is interesting to speculate that his own retirement, ostensibly on the grounds of ill health, was really in deference to the wishes of his father.
Nevertheless in 1810 Thomas rejoined the army and as Cornet in the 13th Light Dragoons, then serving in the Peninsula, and in May 1811 Sir Charles Stewart the Adjutant-General, attached him to his department as D.A.A.G. On his exchange into the 18th Hussars, Stewart appointed him as his aide-de-camp, 14th Dec 1811, an appointment he retained until he was wounded at the siege of Badajoz, and Stewart left the Peninsula. April 1812 he later received the Military General Service Medal with clasps for; Fuentes de Onoro, Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz.
In May 1813 he returned to London on the way to Germany with an established reputation for bravery and military enterprise.
Captain Harris then, in 1813, was attached to the headquarters of the Crown Prince of Sweden through all the operations of his Corps, and was present at the battle of Grossbeeren and Dennewitz. He had then the rare distinction of serving under Marshal Blucher, and was one of the few British officers engaged in the great Battle of Leipzig, of the 18th and 19th October 1813."
(source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44229725)
At the end of his service Thomas received a gold ring and the feathers from Blücher's hat as a token of the latter's esteem. Thomas entered Paris with the Allies on 30 March 1814. The following day he was despatched to take the news of the capture of Paris to London through what was still enemy held territory in northern France. He made the 400-mile (640 km) journey without rest while fending off attacks by supposedly friendly troops. He was taken to Carlton House to deliver dispatches to the Prince Regent, and afterwards was much feted in London.
"?Captain Harris, who was the bearer of the late glorious dispatches from Paris, experienced considerable difficulties in making his way to the sea coast. He was repeatedly attacked by the Cossacks on his route, although under the protection of a Russian officer and a body of Cossacks? on one occasion Captain Harris was nearly cut down, in spite of the efforts of his friends? his hat was cut to pieces, and this circumstance accounts for his appearing in London with a common Dragoon?s foraging cap? but for the resistance provided by his military collar one of the blows received by Captain Harris could have been fatal.?
The Star Newspaper, April 1814
(source: https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/waterloo-coatees-provenance-confirmed )
In April 1815 he was appointed Brigade-Major to the 18th Hussars under Major-general Sir Hussey Vivian. On 15 June he attended the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels. On receiving the order to join units, Harris left immediately in his red swallow-tailed court dress coat, which he subsequently wore at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo (see pic above).
Thomas fought at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. He spent the eve of Waterloo with his cousin Lieutenant John Clement Wallington of the 10th Hussars.
'At Waterloo, Harris had two horses shot from under him. Late in the battles, whilst leading a squadron of the 18th Hussars in a charge, he was shot in the chest and arm. He lay wounded on the field overnight, and was only found the next morning by his cousin from the 10th Hussars who was searching the battlefield for his body. He was taken to Hougoumont and the surgeon cut open the sleeve of the coat and amputated his right arm above the elbow. The other musket ball stayed lodged in his chest for the rest of his life. Despite the loss of his arm, he continued to hunt and shoot.'
(source: https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2015-10-1-1 )
He seems to have made a remarkable recovery from the loss of his arm, writing with his left hand within a month, and riding and driving a carriage one-handedly for the rest of his life. In later years, when his 9 year old grandson Hamlyn Lavicount Harris came to live in England from India, he was taken by his mother Eliza to visit Thomas and, according to Florence Stacy's memoir, "what impressed the small boy was the way in which he flourished the carving knife as he sliced, with his left hand, the big sirloin which the butler held steady with the fork".
For his injuries at Waterloo Thomas was given an annual pension of £200 and in 1817 he was transferred from the staff as Brigade Major and made a full major. In 1823 he was made a brevet Lt Col and appointed as Inspecting Field Officer of the Militia in Nova Scotia, Canada.
In Halifax, Nova Scotia he was the Surveyor General of Ordnance responsible for the rebuilding of the fortifications of Halifax. In 1830 he was given a commission as an unattached major in the infantry and later that same year made Deputy Adjutant General to the troops serving in Canada. In 1832 he was appointed as Assistant Adjutant General in Ireland, and in 1834 he left the Army.
He was then appointed as the Chief Magistrate of Gibraltar. By 1838 he was a widower (his wife died in 1836) and He married he married Eliza Hastings, Dowager Countess of Huntingdon (1781 - 1846) on the Isle of Wight. In 1838 Thomas retired from his post in Gibraltar and moved to live in Regent's Park, London. In 1840 he was appointed a Groom of the Privy Chamber to Queen Victoria and in 1841 he was knighted again.
'St. James's Palace, April 28, 1841. The Queen was this day pleased to confer the honour of Knighthood upon Thomas Noel Harris, Esq. late Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, Knight of the Royal Order of Military Merit of Prussia, and of the Imperial Orders of St. Wladimir and of St. Anne of Russia, Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and one of the Grooms of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Chamber.'
The London Gazette 30 April 1841
In 1846 his wife Eliza Hastings died in Boulogne. She was buried at St Laurence's Church Ramsgate.
In 1847 Thomas married for the third time in Sevenoaks, Kent. His wife was another widow, Mary Thomson. Mary Thomson was the daughter of Thomas White of Lichfield and the widow of Robert Thomson (1797 - 1833) of Camphill House in Renfrewshire near Glasgow, a cotton manufacturer. She had two sons, one of whom was killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 at Balaclava.
In 1855 Thomas was appointed a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent. He spent his last years in Updown House near Ramsgate where he died on 23 March 1860; his widow died three months later.
Memorial in the Church of St Laurence, Ramsgate:
"To the glory of God and in Memory of Thomas Noel Harris, K.H.,&c. who served and bled for his country in the glorious campaigns of the Peninsula, Germany and France, from 1811 to 1814, and at the famous Battle of Waterloo, 18th June 1815."
source: from the notes of Mary Whitty
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This article has some good details about his life, including saving himself by swimming 2 miles to Portsmouth with only one arm when his yatch sank.
It also says Thomas' brother Henry was killed in Burma by being skinned alive.
https://www.centotredicesimo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Due-ussari-inglesi-1813-e-1815-M.I..pdf
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The footnote about the Sabre presented to Tmoas after the battle of Leipzig (see pic above):
D.H. Tomback, 'The Sword Of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Thomas Noel Harris K.H.', Journal Of The Society For Army Historical Research (Spring 1987), Vol. LXV, No. 261, pp. 20-22
The presentation inscription reads: 'From Edward Solly To Thomas Noel Harris, In Commemoration Of Their Fellowship At The Memorable Battle Of Leipzig Of The 18th And 19th Of October 1813.'
The Battle of Leipzig, known also as the Battle of the Nations, was fought between the 16th and 19th of October 1813 between the French and the Allied Armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden. Over 600,000 troops were involved, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I. Napoleon was decisively beaten and retreated to France where he was forced to abdicate and exiled to Elba in May 1814.
Edward Solly (1776-1844) was a very wealthy non-conformist English merchant and highly cultured connoisseur, based in Germany. He acted as the Baltic agent for his family's London-based business which traded as Isaac Solly & Sons. The business was one of the main suppliers of hemp and timber to the Royal Dockyards and was engaged in the Baltic timber trade - the business suffered much during Napoleon's 'Continental Blockade'. Solly was acquainted with Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Stewart (1778-1854), later 3rd Marquis of Londonderry, and witnessed the Battle of Leipzig first-hand. Although not in the army, as he knew the Northern Lowlands so well, he volunteered to ride to London with the news of Napoleon's crushing defeat, travelling by the most direct but perilous route. Moving through enemy territory, the journey took him fifteen days eventually arriving in London with news of the victory twenty-four hours ahead of the King's messenger. He sailed to England across the North Sea on board a Dutch herring bus having paid the fishermen more for his passage than the entire value of the boat and all its tackle. A description of the mission, undertaken in 'the face of hostile forces and the disturbed state of the country', was written up by his son, also Edward, in 'News and Newspapers', The Bibliographer, (March 1884), vols. 5-6, p. 91
Most importantly the recipient of this amazing commemorative sword was the then Captain Thomas Noel Harris (1783-1860), later Colonel Sir Thomas Noel Harris KCH. Harris was a gifted soldier who was with Wellington in the Peninsula. By 1812 he was aide-de-camp to Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Stewart and in 1813 followed him to act with Crown Prince Bernadotte of Sweden and Prussian forces. During the Wars of Liberation he was attached to Blücher's staff and embedded with the Prussian cavalry and would have known Edward Solly from this time. Five months after the Battle of Liepzig, Harris was at the fall of Paris with Stewart, Blücher and the Army of Silesia. Captain Harris was despatched to take the news of the capitulation of Paris to London. Just as his friend Solly before him, he had to journey through enemy-held territory. Harris arrived in London on 5 April to deliver the news of the surrender of the French capital and was much feted, becoming quite a celebrity as the news that he brought was disseminated across the country.
The following year Harris fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo and had two horses shot from under him. At Waterloo he was wounded by a musket ball in the chest and another which shattered his right arm, which was subsequently amputated. He was found lying in the mud by his cousin, John Clement Wallington, of the 10th Hussars (for an account of his uniform worn at Waterloo see Philip J. Haythornthwaite, 'The Waterloo Uniform of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Thomas Noel Harris, K.H.', Journal of The Society For Army Historical Research (Winter 1989), Vol. LXVIII, No. 272, pp. 207-210). He recovered and in 1817 was given an annual pension of £200 for his injuries. In 1814 he was made a Knight of the Royal Order of Military Merit of Prussia and of the Imperial Orders of St. Vladimir and of St. Anne of Russia. In 1830 he was made a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Order. In 1832 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General in Ireland and in 1834 he became the Chief Magistrate of Gibraltar. In 1840 he was made a Groom of the Privy Chamber to Queen Victoria and in 1841 he was knighted for a second time. Twice widowed, in 1847 he married for a third time (one of his step-sons by his third wife was killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in 1854). In 1855 he was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent. There is a memorial to him in the Church of St. Lawrence, Ramsgate which states that he 'served and bled for his country'. See Clement B.H. Harris, A Brief Memoir of the Late Lt-Col Sir T.N. Harris, K.H., etc', London, 1893 (a copy is offered with the lot and includes a handwritten tipped-in letter from the author to Charles Dalton, author of the famous Waterloo Roll Call, published in 1890).
Edward Solly continued as a merchant until he returned to London in 1821. However, he is best remembered as a collector of and later, dealer in, paintings. He amassed a huge collection of 14th and 15th Century Italian works, selling around 3,000 pieces to the new art museum in Berlin in 1821. He continued to collect and deal, and paintings that passed through his hands can be seen in galleries throughout the world to this day.
The sword represents the great friendship formed by two men of vastly differing backgrounds, one a man of action and the other a connoisseur of fine art, who were thrown together by a war which transformed Europe.
source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151121085128/https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22277/lot/82/
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The following book looks like it has his life story:
"Brief Memoir of the Late Lt.-Col. Sir Thomas Noel Harris, K.H., Knight of the Royal Order of Military Merit of Prussia, and of the Imperial Orders of St. Anne and Vladimir of Russia"
Author Clement B. Harris [his grandson]
Publisher Hazell, Watson and Viney, 1893
A copy is held at the Academy Library, University of NSW, Australia.
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Name Thomas Noel Harris
Marriage Date 11 Oct 1804
Marriage Place Cathedral St Mary,Limerick,Limerick,Ireland
Spouse Elizabeth Hemsworth
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/1321312:9904?tid=&pid=&queryId=4e984a1e794076364eaef62de9edc0e5&_phsrc=ZPR8&_phstart=successSource
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