Memoirs of John Lindsay, Earl of Crawford

 This is a reprint of the Memoirs of the Life of the Late Right Honourable John Lindesay, Earl of Craufurd, written by Richard Rolt. The modern spelling is Crawford and Lindsay, but these memoirs cover the life of the 20th Earl (1702-1749), a soldier who fought in the Russian and Austrian wars against the Ottomans between 1736 and 1739.

The title was granted in 1398, although there was a Baron Crawford well before that. Crawford is a short drive from where I live, and most visitors to Scotland driving up the west coast will pass the ruined castle just off the M74 in Lanarkshire. 

The young Earl's father was a soldier in Queen Anne's army, and his mother died when he was in his infancy. He was privately tutored and then studied at the University of Glasgow and the Vaudeuil Military Academy, Paris. History was his favourite subject, and his memoirs include many references to ancient campaigns, even though they add very little to the narrative. A classical education has to be demonstrated! In 1726, he was commissioned into the North British Dragoons and in 1734, he commanded a company of the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. His father had died, so he inherited the title and was one of the 16 Scottish peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords under the Treaty of Union. 

18th-century European armies had foreign officers and even commanders. The young Earl got permission to travel to join Prince Eugene's army fighting the French in the War of the Polish Succession. He met the Irish general, Peter Lacy, who was commanding the Russian Corps supporting the Austrians. I assume they avoided politics, as Lacy was a Jacobite! While Crawford was hardly slumming it, with four servants and eleven horses, he wasn't just an observer. He saw action in a couple of skirmishes.

When war broke out between the Russians and the Ottomans in 1736, he travelled to St Petersburg, where he met Admiral Gordon, another Scot in Russian service. He then had a long journey (a month) to join Field Marshal Münnich's army, which was preparing to invade Crimea. He skirmished with the Russian auxiliary Kalmyks against the Tatars. What they made of a Scottish Earl attempting horse archery is not recorded.

After that, he travelled to join the Austrian army commanded by George Wallis, another Irish officer. This ended at the Battle of Grocka on 21 July 1739. The Austrians were defeated by the Ottomans, who then besieged Belgrade before a peace treaty was agreed. The Earl was severely wounded in the thigh, and you may want to skip the details of 18th-century surgery and treatment. The wound never properly healed and probably contributed to his death ten years later. Not that this stopped him from fighting with the British army. He fought at the Battle of Dettingen on 16 June 1743. He gained the rank of Brigadier-General in 1744 and Major-General in 1745. He fought in the Jacobite rising of 1745 (on the government side, of course) and at the Battle of Fontenoy on 30 April 1745.

18th-century memoirs are not easy reads, with their language, repetition, and unnecessary commentary. However, this is a primary English-language source on the wars against the Ottomans, even if the Earl is not exactly an objective observer. Even allowing for the privileges of rank, he was a brave soldier, and the story is fascinating.

Some of my 28mm General officers of the period