Galbraith Lowry Cole


Hon. Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, was an Anglo-Irish British Army general and politician.

Early life

Cole was the second son of an Irish peer, William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen, and Anne Lowry-Corry, the daughter of Galbraith Lowry-Corry of Tyrone, and the sister of Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore.

Army service

Cole was commissioned a cornet in 1787, and served in the West Indies, Ireland, and Egypt. He served as brigadier general in Sicily and commanded the 1st Brigade at the Battle of Maida on 4 July 1806. In 1808 he was promoted to major-general, to lieutenant-general in 1813 and full general in 1830.
He was colonel of the 27th Foot, commanded the 4th Division in the Peninsular War under Wellington, and was wounded at the Battle of Albuera in which he played a decisive part. He was also wounded, much more seriously, at Salamanca.
For having served with distinction in the battles of Maida, Albuhera, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthez and Toulouse, he received the Army Gold Cross with four clasps. In 1815 he became General Officer Commanding Northern District.

Member of Parliament

He was Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons for the family seat of Enniskillen from 1797 to 1800, and represented Fermanagh in the British House of Commons in 1803.
He was appointed 2nd Governor of Mauritius from 12 June 1823 to 17 June 1828. He left in 1828 to take up the post of Governor of the Cape Colony which position he filled until 1833. Cole was invested as a Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Bath on 2 January 1815.
He is commemorated in Enniskillen by a statue surmounting a column in Fort Hill Park, carried out by the Irish sculptor, Terence Farrell.

Family

Cole was married on 15 June 1815 to Frances Harris, daughter of James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, for whom Malmesbury, Western Cape is named, and Harriet Mary, his wife. Frances Cole played a prominent part in social philanthropy in the Cape and worked towards having Coloured children taught useful trades. Colesberg, a town in the Cape, is named after him, as is Sir Lowry's Pass near Cape Town. They had seven children:
His elder brother John Willoughby Cole married Charlotte Paget, the daughter of Henry Bayly Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge.
His sisters were:
He lived at Highfield House, Heckfield in Hampshire, adjacent to the Stratfield Saye estate of his friend the Duke of Wellington.