The European Adventures of Major Edward McGauran in the military

Major Edward McGauran served as a soldier on the continent and his adventures are recorded in the two books he wrote. This is the second in a two part column by Jonathan Smyth...

An adventurous soul, Edward McGauran was a soldier of fortune whose adventures rivalled anything written by a novelist. Published in 1786, the first part of McGauran’s memoir’s title tells us a great deal about the man. We learn that he is a ‘grandson of Colonel Bryan McGauran, Baron of Talaha (Tullyhaw), in the county of Cavan, in the Kingdom of Ireland’.

The family Castle, long ago, was erased by Oliver Cromwell. During his soldiering career, Edward served in many armies; his curriculum vitae is wide and varied; he began as an ‘ensign in General Loudon’s Austrian Regiment of Foot’; then volunteered in the service Admiral Elpinstone on board the Russian Squadron’, on an expedition to fight the Turks; a cadet in ‘the honourable’ East India Company’s Force; a Major in the ‘service of Portugal’; and finally, a Lieutenant in the ‘British Army in America’. His enlistment as a cadet with the Austrian army came about with a little help from a relative.

My discovery of this adventurer came about after receiving a loan of volume two of Edward’s memoir from Concepta McGovern at Cavan Genealogy Centre. However, since obtaining the book, I managed to locate part one and the column, which follows, will focus on some of the events experienced by the illustrious Major McGauran.

He begins with a letter written on October 6, 1785, telling us that upon ‘resuming’ his pen he wished to state that from early youth he had shown an inclination to lead a ‘military life’. To him, martial music, was ever appealing to his ears and adding that ‘nothing gave me so much delight, as the manoeuvre of a regiment, at a review’.

At the age of 17 years, McGauran sailed for Germany where some of his relatives were among those being drafted from the Irish Carabineers then serving under Prince Ferdinand; the new Corps became known as the third regiment of horse.

‘His endgame was not to serve in the German Corps. But to eventually make his way to the Austrian forces’ who were engaged against the King of Prussia at Silesia. The Austrian army’s second in command, O’Donnell, was a ‘not too distant relative’, explained McGauran. He joined the German army at Bremen in 1762.

Never kissed

Eventually, he reached Frankfurt where the ‘recruiting parties of the Austrian grand army’ were stationed and, with a letter of recommendation received earlier, he presented himself a willing volunteer to serve within their ranks. His language skills needed improvement and, for a time, he lodged with a family in Germany. The couple with whom he stayed had an unmarried daughter and, one day, while surrounded by baskets of walnuts and alone, their conversation turned to the fact that she had never been properly kissed by a man.

McGauran took hold of her and kissed her full on the mouth and, in the struggle, both fell to the floor and, in so doing, knocked over the large baskets of walnuts. The nuts rolled everywhere around the room, down the stairs, out the front door and into the street. The floor in the upstairs room was almost two feet deep in nuts. The loud clatter caused the neighbours to come running and, when McGauran explained what happened, they all went away laughing to themselves.

When later, he came to depart those lodgings, the lady was sad to see him leave and commented that she now had to crack walnuts, alone.

Boyne Battle

Military life was in McGauran’s blood, for amongst his ancestors was Bryan McGuaran, his grandfather, a soldier who fought on the side of King James against William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne. Edward succeeded in becoming an ensign in General Loudon’s Austrian Regiment of Foot, a matter well-documented in volume one of his memoirs; aided by a little familial help from General O’Donnell whose sister was said to have been an aunt of the young man.

McGauran pondered the reason for there being so many Irish at the head of foreign armies and concluded it was down to persecution caused by the penal laws in Ireland.

He spoke of a certain Count Connell who had turned down the position of Field Marshall with the Austrians but never-the-less gained great face with them, leading McGauran to note of him, that ‘he had more influence at the Austrian court than any other Irishman’.

Other Irish personnel in the service of the Austrian army in the 18th Century included Count Brown, the two General O’Donnells, Colonel Hume Caldwell, General Count Nugent (and his brothers ‘Colonel and Captain Nugent’), Count McGuire of Enniskillen, Field Marshall Count Lacey and a slew of other Generals, including Butler, O’Kelly, Plunket, Kavanagh and McKellicut.

Commission

In a letter dated November 20, 1785, he recalled the time at which he received a commission in General Loudon’s regiment of foot and travelled to join them at Kuttenberg. McGauran in an admission of vanity, previously wrote that: ‘From the first entering into this service , I had assumed the title of Baron, which was not in the least objected to.

Yet my vanity was much flattered by the Germans in my travels through the Holy Roman Empire; for as the quarter masters always gave me the Colonel Count O’Donnell’s quarters, I was styled by my hosts, en passante, Excellence, a title given to the Counts of the Empire.’

In next week’s column we continue with Major McGauran’s adventures. Until then, I will end with a quote from McGauran himself, who, having realised he ought to allow his readers a moment to catch breath, wrote, ‘here permit me to give a little respite to my fingers and your eyes.’

And so, here I end in order to permit you such respite too.

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