GOUGH, HUGH GOUGH, VISCOUNT (1779-1869), Irish field-marshal, a descendant of Francis Gough who was made bishop of Limerick in 1626, was born at Woodstown, Limerick, on Nov. 3, 1779. Having entered the army in August 1794, he served with the 78 Highlanders at the Cape of Good Hope, taking part in the capture of Cape Town and of the Dutch fleet in Saldanha Bay in 1796. His next service was in the West Indies, where, with the 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers), he shared in the attack on Porto Rico, the capture of Surinam, and the brigand war in St. Lucia. In 1809 joining the army in Portugal under Wellington, he commanded his regiment as major in the opera tions before Oporto, by which the town was taken from the French. At Talavera he was severely wounded, and had his horse shot under him. For his conduct on this occasion he was after wards promoted lieutenant-colonel, his commission, on the recom mendation of Wellington, being antedated from the day of the duke's despatch. He was thus the first officer who ever received brevet rank for services performed in the field at the head of a regiment. He was next engaged at the battle of Barrosa, at which his regiment captured a French eagle. At the defence of Tarifa the post of danger was assigned to him, and he compelled the enemy to raise the siege. At Vittoria, where Gough again dis tinguished himself, his regiment captured the baton of Marshal Jourdan. He was again severely wounded at the battle of Nivelle, and was soon after created a knight of St. Charles by the king of Spain.
After a short respite from active service he served in southern Ireland. In 1837 he took command in Mysore, and was sent from there to China during the first Chinese war (1841-4 2) . After the conclusion of the treaty of Nanking in August 1842 the British forces were withdrawn. Gough was created a baronet. In August 1843 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in India, and in December he took the command in person against the Mahrattas, and defeated them at Maharajpur, capturing more than fifty guns. In 1845 occurred the rupture with the Sikhs, who crossed the Sutlej in large numbers. Gough conducted the operations. Successes in the hard-fought battles of Mudki and Ferozeshah were succeeded by the victory of Sobraon, and shortly afterwards the Sikhs sued for peace at Lahore. Gough was now raised to the peerage as Baron Gough (April 1846). The war broke out again in 1848, and again Lord Gough took the field; but the result of the battle of Chillianwalla being equivocal, he was superseded by the home authorities in favour of Sir Charles Napier; before the news of the supersession arrived Gough had finally crushed the Sikhs in the battle of Gujarat (February 1849). His tactics during the Sikh wars were the subject of an embittered controversy (see SIKH WARS). Lord Gough now returned to Eng land, was raised to a viscountcy, and for the third time received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. A pension of f 2,000 per annum was granted to him by parliament, and an equal pen sion by the East India Company. In November 1862, he was made field-marshal. He died on March 2, 1869.
See R. S. Rait, Lord Gough (1903) ; and Sir W. Lee Warner, Lord Dalhousie (1904) •