CRAUFURD, ROBERT (1764-1812), British eral, one of the quickest and most brilliant of Wellington's lieuten ants in the Peninsular War, was born at Newark, Ayrshire, on May 5, 1764, and entered the 25th Foot in 1779. He saw service in the campaigns against Tippoo Sahib (179o-92) ; with the Aus trian armies in 1793; in 1797 with Lake in the suppression of the Irish rising of that year; as British commissioner at Russian headquarters in Suvorov's Swiss campaign 1799 ; and in the Buenos Aires expedition of 1807. Craufurd held a brigade com mand in the Corunna campaign of i8o8, and next year was sent to Spain in command of the brigade (43rd, 52nd and 95th bat talions), soon to be famous throughout Europe as the "Light Brigade." Craufurd found himself three marches in the rear of Wellesley's army when the news that a battle was in progress at Talavera reached him. He reached the front on the day after the battle, the brigade having covered 62 miles in 26 hours. Start ing with this record, Craufurd's brigade covered itself with glory at Busaco, at Fuentes d'Onoro, and at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, where their commander was mortally wounded (Jan. 19, 1812) while directing the attack. He died on the 24th and was buried in the breach his men had made.
Craufurd's elder brother, Lieut.-Gen. SIR CHARLES CRAUFURD (1761-1821), was British commissioner at the Austrian army headquarters in Flanders in the campaign of 1793, and in western Germany in 1795-96. He was severely wounded at Amberg and invalided home. He was promoted lieutenant-general in 181o, and received the G.C.B. in 1821. He died on March 26, 1821. Craufurd published nothing except a translation of Tielke's book on the Seven Years War, but he was an acute observer, and his papers on the campaigns in which he shared, preserved in the Record Office, London, form invaluable material for the military historian.