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SIR RICHARD CHURCH (1784–1873)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 325 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:RICHARD See also:CHURCH (1784–1873)  , See also:British military officer and See also:general in the See also:Greek See also:army, was the son of a Quaker, See also:Matthew See also:Church of See also:Cork . He was See also:born in 1784, and at the See also:age of sixteen ran away from See also:home and enlisted in the army . For this violation of its principles he was disowned by the Society of See also:Friends, but his See also:father bought him a See also:commission, dated the 3rd of See also:July 1800, in the 13th (See also:Somersetshire) See also:Light See also:Infantry . He served in the demonstration against See also:Ferrol, and in the expedition to See also:Egypt under See also:Sir See also:Ralph See also:Abercromby in 18o1 . After the See also:expulsion of the See also:French from Egypt he returned home, but came back to the Mediterranean in 18o5 among the troops sent to defend the See also:island of See also:Sicily . He accompanied the expedition which landed in See also:Calabria, and fought a successful See also:battle against the French at See also:Maida on the 6th of July 18o6 . Church was See also:present on this occasion as See also:captain of a recently raised See also:company of Corsican Rangers . His zeal attracted the See also:notice of his superiors, and he had begun to show his capacity for managing and drilling See also:foreign levies . His Corsicans formed See also:part of the See also:garrison of See also:Capri from See also:October 18o6 till the island was taken by an expedition directed against it by See also:Murat, in See also:September 18o8, at the very beginning of his reign as See also:king of See also:Naples . Church, who had distinguished himself in the See also:defence, returned to See also:Malta after the See also:capitulation . In the summer of 1809 he sailed with the expedition sent to occupy the Ionian Islands . Here he increased the reputation he had already gained by forming a Greek See also:regiment in See also:English pay .

It included many of the men who were afterwards among the leaders of the Greeks in the See also:

War of See also:Independence . Church commanded this regiment at the taking of See also:Santa Maura, on which occasion his See also:left See also:arm was shattered by a See also:bullet . During his slow recovery he travelled in See also:northern See also:Greece, and See also:Macedonia, and to See also:Constantinople . In the years of the fall of See also:Napoleon (1813 and 1814) he was present as English military representative with the See also:Austrian troops until the See also:campaign which terminated in the expulsion of Murat from Naples . He See also:drew up a See also:report on the Ionian Islands for the See also:congress of See also:Vienna, in which he argued in support, not only of the retention of the islands under the British See also:flag, but of the permanent occupation by See also:Great See also:Britain of See also:Parga and of other formerly Venetian See also:coast towns on the See also:main-See also:land, then in the See also:possession of See also:Ali See also:Pasha of See also:Iannina . The See also:peace and the disbanding of his Greek regiment left him without employment, though his reputation was high at the war See also:office, and his services were recognized by the See also:grant of a companionship of the See also:Bath . In 1817 he entered the service of King See also:Ferdinand of Naples as See also:lieutenant-general, with a commission to suppress the See also:brigandage then rampant in See also:Apulia . Ample See also:powers were given him, and he attained a full measure of success . In 182o he was appointed See also:governor of See also:Palermo and See also:commander-in-See also:chief of the troops in Sicily . The revolution which See also:broke out in that See also:year led to the termination of his services in Naples . He escaped from violence in Sicily with some difficulty . At Naples he was imprisoned and put on his trial by the See also:government, but was acquitted and released in See also:January 1821; and King See also:George IV. conferred on him a See also:knight commandership of the Hanoverian See also:order .

The rising of the Greeks against the See also:

Turks, which began at this See also:time, had his full sympathy from the first . But for some years he had to See also:act only as the friend of the insurgents in See also:England . In 1827 he took the See also:honourable but unfortunate step of accepting the commandership-in-chief of the Greek army . At the point of anarchy and indiscipline to which they had now fallen, the Greeks could no longer See also:form an efficient army, and could look for salvation only to foreign intervention . Sir See also:Richard Church, wholanded in See also:March, was sworn " archistrategos " on the 15th of See also:April 1827 . But he could not secure loyal co-operation or obedience . The rout of his army in an See also:attempt to relieve the See also:acropolis of See also:Athens, then besieged by the Turks, proved that it was incapable of conducting See also:regular operations . The acropolis capitulated, and Sir Richard turned to See also:partisan warfare in western Greece . Here his activity had beneficial results, for it led to a rectification in 1832, in a sense favourable to Greece, of the frontier See also:drawn by the powers in 183o (see his Observations on an Eligible See also:Line of Frontier for Greece, See also:London, 183o) . Church had, however, surrendered his commission, as a protest against the unfriendly government of See also:Capo d'See also:Istria, on the 25th of See also:August 1829 . He lived for the See also:rest of his See also:life in Greece, was created general of the army in 1854, and died at Athens on the 3oth of March 1873 . Sir Richard Church married in 1826 See also:Elizabeth See also:Augusta See also:Wilmot-See also:Horton, who survived him till 1878 .

See Sir Richard Church, by See also:

Stanley See also:Lane See also:Poole (London, 1890) ; Sir Richard Church in See also:Italy and Greece, by E . M . Church (See also:Edinburgh, 1895), based on See also:family papers (an See also:Italian version, Brigantaggio e societd segrete nelle Puglie, 1817–1818, executed under the direction of Carlo See also:Lacaita, appeared at See also:Florence in 1899) . The MS . See also:Correspondence and Papers of Sir Richard Church, in 29 vols., now in the British Museum (Add . See also:MSS . 36543-36571), contain invaluable material for the See also:history of the War of Greek Independence, including a narrative ofy the war during Church's See also:tenure of the command, which corrects many errors in the published accounts and successfully vindicates Church's reputation against the strictures of See also:Finlay, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and other historians of the war (see See also:Cam . Mod . Hist. x. p . 804) . (D .

End of Article: SIR RICHARD CHURCH (1784–1873)
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