Eyre Coote (British Army officer)

Eyre Coote
An 1895 illustration of Coote
Born	20 May 1762
Died	10 December 1823 (1823-12-11) (aged 61)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Battles/wars	American War of Independence French Revolutionary Wars

Eyre Coote (20 May 1762 – 10 December 1823) was an Irish-born British soldier and politician who served as Governor of Jamaica. He attained the rank of general in the British Army and was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (KCB) before being stripped of his rank and honours in 1816 after conduct unworthy of an officer and a gentleman.

He was the second son of the Very Rev. Charles Coote (1713 – 12 February 1776), DD, Dean of Kilfenora and wife (m. 31 July 1753) Grace Tilson (- 1 January 1767), brother of Charles Henry Coote (1754–1823), who succeeded the last Earl of Mountrath as 2nd Baron Castle Coote in 1802, and nephew of Sir Eyre Coote, KB, the celebrated Indian General, to whose vast estates in England and Ireland he eventually succeeded.

Following studies at Eton and Trinity College Dublin, Coote purchased a commission in 1774 as an ensign (aged 14) in the 37th Regiment of Foot, of which his uncle Lieutenant- General Sir Eyre Coote was colonel.

His regiment at once embarked for North America to fight in the American War of Independence, and he carried the colours at the Battle of Brooklyn on 27 August 1776. He was then promoted lieutenant, and served with that rank at York Island, Rhode Island, the expedition to the Chesapeake, and the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth Court House. He was promoted captain on 10 August 1778, and served in the campaign in New York in 1779, at the siege of Charleston in 1780, and finally throughout Lord Cornwallis's campaigns in Virginia up to the capitulation of Yorktown, when he became a prisoner.