Lieutenant General Sir James Adolphus Oughton
1761
James Adolphus Oughton was born in 1720 and became a Lieutenant
in 1741 in St George’s Regiment of Dragoons which his father
had commanded from 1733-36.
He was promoted Captain in 1742 when he joined Major General Henry Ponsonby’s Regiment of Foot (later the 37th Regiment) in which he served during the Scottish Rebellion and at Culloden. The Regiment’s losses were heavy and Captain Oughton did much to recruit replacements before the Regiment, now known as Dejeans, went to Flanders and Lauffeldt in June 1747. By August 1749 Oughton was Lieutenant Colonel of his Regiment and in July 1759 he became Colonel of the 55th Foot which had been on active service in the conquest of French Canada.
In August 1761 Oughton changed his Colonelship on moving to the 31st Foot. During his Colonelcy the Regiment served overseas in the American War of Independence. Later he appears to have been temporarily in command of forces in Scotland, soon after which he was made a Knight of the Bath by King George III in North Britain, a post he held until his death at the age of 61 in Bath on 2nd May 1780. A memorial tablet was placed in Westminster Abbey.
A portrait of him dated 1753, when he was still in the 37th Foot (later The Royal Hampshire Regiment), depicts him in the Duke of Cumberland’s uniform and wearing the Culloden medal and ribbon.
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