Thomas Tollemache

Thomas Tollemache was born in 1651, second son of Sir Lionel Tollemache (1624–1669) of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk and Elizabeth, 2nd Countess of Dysart, whose second husband was John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale. Tollemache never married.[1]

Helmingham Hall, Tollemache's family home

According to his own account, Tollemache spent several years travelling in Europe before returning to England in 1668, when he attended Queens' College, Cambridge, followed by legal training at the Inner Temple. Details of his early military career are unclear; by 1673 he was based in Germany during the Franco-Dutch War, where he served with John Churchill.[1]

In 1678, he was commissioned into the English Army at the rank of captain in the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, with which he served with the Tangier Garrison, along with Percy Kirke and Charles Trelawny. Although he lost his commission after fighting a duel, in 1685 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the newly formed Royal Fusiliers. In 1686, he resigned in protest at the admission of Catholic officers by James II, and became a leading member of the "Treason Club", which supported armed intervention by the Protestant William of Orange on behalf of James' daughter Mary II of England.[1]

He was also associated with the Association of Protestant Officers, whose members included Trelawny, Churchill and Kirke, all of whom opposed James.[2] In early 1688, he joined one of the regiments in the Anglo-Scots Brigade, a long established mercenary unit in the Dutch army and accompanied William of Orange during the November 1688 Glorious Revolution. He was made governor of Portsmouth and colonel of the Coldstream Guards, as well as being elected MP for Malmesbury in 1689.[3]

His regiment was posted to Flanders during the Nine Years' War, seeing action at the Battle of Walcourt in August 1689. During 1691, he served in Ireland as a major general, fighting at the Battle of Aughrim and the sieges of Athlone and Limerick. Following the Treaty of Limerick which ended the war, he returned to Flanders where he took part in the battles of Steenkirk and Landen.[1]

In 1694 Tollemache led an assault on the port of Brest; warned of the proposed attack, the French under Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban reinforced the garrison and strengthened the defences. The ensuing Battle of Camaret was disastrous for the English who were repulsed with heavy losses; Tollemache was wounded and later died of his injuries in Plymouth on 12 June 1694.[3] He was buried in the church of St Mary's at Helmingham.[1]

• Hayton, DW (2002). TOLLEMACHE, Hon. Thomas (c.1650-94), of Leicester Fields, Westminster in "The History of Parliament; the House of Commons 1690-1715. Boydell & Brewer.
• Holmes, Richard (2009). Marlborough; England's Fragile Genius. Harper Press. ISBN 978-0007225729.
• Wauchope, Piers (2004). "Tollemache , Thomas (c.1651–1694)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27500. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)