Brigadier-General Thomas Eyre

Rank, wife and place of death from Burke's Irish Family Records.

Thomas Eyre, Brig.Gen. (1774-1819)

Met with General Gregor Mac Gregor at the end of 1818, and enlisted members of the Hibernia Regiment into the recruits he was taking back with him to fight in the Hipano American Colonies. Said Regiment arrived in Rio Hacha (Colombia), on October 5h, 1819, near Santa Marta de Colombia.

On Mac Gregor's arrival from his failed take over of Porto Bello (Panama), he found waiting for him at Aux Cayes (Les Cayes, Dominican Republic) 500 officers and enlisted men, courtesy of recruiters in Ireland and London, but he had no ships for carrying them and little in the way of equipment. This was remedied during July and August 1819, first by the arrival of his Irish recruiter Colonel Thomas Eyre with 400 men and two ships—Mac Gregor gave him the rank of General and the Order of the Green Cross—and second, by the appearance of war materiel from London, sent by Thomas Newte (London financier, an old friend of Mac Gregor' s) on a schooner named Amelia.

The next year (1819) he was involved in the expedition that sailed with a small force of officials and soldiers to land in Cartagena, but they were repelled by heavy artillery, having to land to the west, in Rio Hacha. The party was led by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rafter, who had bought a commission to join this force to look for his brother, Colonel William Rafter who had been abandoned by MacGregor at Porto Bello (Panama).

They made land fall on September 29th, 1819. After sustaining an attack from the troops that defended the beach, they were able to move inland. Lieutenant Colonel William Norcott led this attack, seconded by Rafter, while Mac Gregor watched the siege from one of the ships. Once they had taken control of the garrison defending the port, they signaled Mac Gregor to move in, but he cautiously stayed in his ship, refusing to believe the invasion had been successful. Finally, two hours later, he decided to move in. The soldiers were hectic, and extremely annoyed at his cowardice, hauling insults and spitting at him. After ten (10) days at the place seized, the Spanish military moved in the area and the invaders grew wearisome. Norcott and Rafter managed to leave on a captured Spanish schooner on 10-10-1819 taking along other officers and soldiers. Mac Gregor pompously escorted Gral. Thomas Eyre's wife and children to the safety of a frigate about to sail off from the scene. Gral Eyre himself was swept off his feet with amazement, as Mac Gregor boarded another vessel and left, leaving behind a number of recruits and Thomas Eyre himself. Thomas Eyre was captured by the Spanish, and together with all his men (about 110 strong), were tragically executed sometime after this day.

text by P.L. Baldo D. April 26th, 2019 ((200th Anniversary) Bicentennial of the British and Irish Legions ).