Richard Kane

Richard Kane
Richard Kane
Born	1662
Died	1736
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	Nine Years' War War of the Spanish Succession

Brigadier General Richard Kane (1662–1736) was a British Army General.

Born to Thomas O'Cahan and his wife, Margaret Dobbin, at his mother's home in Duneane, County Antrim, Ireland, in December 1662. At the age of 26, he anglicised his name to Kane and joined a volunteer Protestant regiment in his home town, Carrickfergus, raised to oppose James II's Catholic rule.

Kane joined the army as a lieutenant in the Antrim Volunteers and took part in the defence of Londonderry in 1689. Shortly afterwards, he joined the Earl of Meath's Regiment (later the Royal Irish Regiment, and otherwise known as the 18th Regiment) and fought in William III's campaigns in Ireland in 1689-91. His regiment was singled out in recognition of its bravery during the 1695 siege of Namur at which he was wounded. In 1702, William died and the Duke of Marlborough took command of the army. Kane fought under Marlborough in many bloody battles of the War of the Spanish Succession and was severely wounded at Blenheim. In December 1710, Queen Anne named him colonel of his own regiment of foot (formerly the regiment of the disgraced George Macartney), which was finally disbanded in 1717.

In 1711, Kane sailed to Canada in an unsuccessful expedition under General Jack Hill to take Quebec from the French. On that voyage, he visited Boston. In the following year he commanded British troops in a takeover of the town of Dunkirk which ended disastrously when an epidemic killed half of the men.

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