William Stewart (1774–1827)

Lieutenant-General Sir William Stewart, GCB (10 January 1774 – 7 January 1827) was a British military officer who was the first Commanding Officer of the Rifle Corps, a Division Commander in the Peninsular War and a Scottish Member of Parliament (MP) in the British Parliament.

William Stewart, born on 10 January 1774, was the fourth (second surviving) son of John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway (1736–1806), and his second wife, Anne (1742/3–1830), daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet. Charles James Stewart the second Bishop of Quebec, was his younger brother.

He represented Saltash in Cornwall from 1795 to 1796, Wigtownshire 1796–1802, the Wigtown Burghs 1803–1805 and Wigtownshire again 1812–1816.

Stewart entered the British Army in 1786 as a twelve-year-old Ensign in the 42nd Foot. His first active service was in the West Indies Campaign of 1793–94, where he was wounded. After further service in the West Indies, when he commanded the 67th Foot at San Domingo (1796–98), Stewart returned to Europe and was given permission to serve with Britain's Austrian and Russian allies in Italy, Swabia and Switzerland during the campaign of 1799.

Stewart was intensely interested in weapons and tactics. It was probably his observations in 1799 of 'light infantry' and Tyrolese and Croat soldiers that did not fight in the rigid formations adopted by normal infantry units that led him to propose that the British Army should include a permanent force of 'light infantry', equipped with rifles. His ideas won support, especially from the influential Equerry to the King, Colonel Coote Manningham, who Stewart had first met in the West Indies.

In March 1800 an experimental 'Corps of Riflemen' was established. In August Stewart commanded it at the amphibious attack on Ferrol, where he was severely wounded in the chest as he led his riflemen up the cliffs. In October 1800 the Corps was gazetted as an established unit, with Manningham as colonel and Stewart as its first lieutenant-colonel and commanding officer.

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