John Douglas (Royal Marines officer)
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Sir John Douglas (died 4 March 1814) was a British officer of the Royal Marines who, with his wife Charlotte, Lady Douglas, was involved in a scandal regarding an allegedly illegitimate child born to the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick.
Douglas was born at Jean Fields, Dalkeith, near Edinburgh; he was the son of Louis Douglas, Esq.; his grandfather was a lord of Session.[1] He began his military service at age 13.[2] Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Marines on 14 February 1776, he was promoted to first lieutenant on 9 April 1778.[3] While serving as on recruitment duties in Gloucester, he met Charlotte Hopkinson, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Caesar Hopkinson, late of the 15th Dragoons.[4] Her family were acquaintances of antiquarian Samuel Lysons.[5] Colonel Hopkinson bought the estate of Wotton in 1790.[6]
A captain, 29 April 1783, Douglas became major in the Army, 1 March 1794.[3] He married 17 June 1797, at Gloucester, to Charlotte,[7] daughter of a private soldier, named Hephinson or Hopkinson, who was soon made a Sergeant; later becoming an army agent and subsequently became a colonel, wealthy with an estate near Gloucester.[1] He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the Army, 1 January 1798[3]
Mentioned in dispatches by Sydney Smith for actions at Acre (as temporary Colonel),[8] Douglas commanded British marines and Ottoman forces at the retaking of El-Arish.[9][10]
He was knighted on 2 April 1800,[11] Equerry to Duke of Sussex 15 September 1802.[12] Promotion followed as Major and Captain Royal Marines, 19 July 1803, and Lieutenant-Colonel Royal Marines, 15 August 1805,[3] and promoted Colonel in the Army, 25 April 1808.[3] On 4 June 1811 he was promoted from Colonel to Major-General in the Army.[3][13]
