, who Guydickens served as
aide de camp to during the
Seven Years' War Guydickens joined the
British Army in 1754, becoming a
cornet in the
6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons on 17 December. He was promoted to
lieutenant on 2 September 1756. With the
Seven Years' War ongoing, from 1760 Guydickens was detached from regimental duties on diplomatic service in Germany. Guydickens transferred to the
3rd Foot Guards as a lieutenant and
captain while in Germany on 1 May 1761, serving as
aide de camp to
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. On 11 November 1762 he arrived at
St James's Palace in Britain, carrying news from Ferdinand to
George III of the victory at the
siege of Cassel on 1 November. He also embarked on a career as a
courtier, being appointed a
Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter to the royal household of George III in 1765, and continued with his Germany secondment until 1768. Guydickens was promoted to captain and lieutenant-colonel on 22 February 1775, taking command of a
company. Having continued as a courtier, by 1777 he had been appointed Gentleman Usher to
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He advanced to first major within his regiment on 18 April 1786. By seniority he then became a
major-general on 28 April 1790. Still serving to this point as first major of the 3rd Foot Guards, he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel on 15 September 1791. Throughout this period Guydickens was heavily in debt, having to answer fifty-eight actions at the
Court of King's Bench between 1787 and 1792.
Gross indecency charge While in
Hyde Park in the evening of 16 August 1792 Guydickens was caught by Thomas Cannon and William Haywood, two
Coldstream Guards privates, undertaking homosexual acts with John Scott, an 18-year-old lawyers' clerk. Cannon was known to search for men in parks who he could blackmail for
sodomy; he had recently forced a man to flee the country to avoid Cannon's accusation that he had solicited him for sex. Arrested for gross indecency, Scott and Guydickens were taken by the soldiers to their
guardhouse. , held a court of enquiry on Guydickens' conduct and rebuffed his counter-allegations At the guardhouse Guydickens used his authority to have Cannon and Haywood arrested in turn for "grossly insulting" him, and escaped. He had them released from custody a day later, but the soldiers reported him and
Prince Frederick, Duke of York opened a court of enquiry against him. Suspended from his command, Guydickens refused to appear at the court but handed himself in on 20 August, being indicted for an "unnatural crime". He paid his
bail and was released, while Scott could not afford it and was left in prison. Guydickens continued his campaign against the two soldiers who had first apprehended him, charging them on 16 September with assault. The Duke of York intervened and paid their bail for them, and the charges were removed on 19 October. Guydickens' trial at the Court of King's Bench was repeatedly postponed, with many of the military witnesses having left to serve in the
Flanders campaign, the
French Revolutionary Wars having begun. In April 1793 Cannon was accused of attempting to seduce a 72-year-old
porter, but this was abandoned when the court deemed it an attempt to smear his character for Guydickens, who had also made a failed attempt to bribe Cannon. On 24 June Scott was released on bail, having admitted that he had committed "indecencies" with Guydickens. Scott and Guydickens were never brought to trial. The general
sold his commission and retired from the army on 31 July. He relinquished his position in the royal household in the same year. Colonel
William Grinfield replaced Guydickens in command of the 3rd Foot Guards and led the regiment on service in the Flanders campaign. Guydickens continued to struggle with debt and in November was committed to
Fleet Prison. He was incarcerated for the rest of his life, dying there in March 1802, age 70. He was buried at
St Bride's Church on 20 March. Cannon continued his campaign against homosexuals in London parks until November 1808 when he was arrested for extortion. He was found to have actively solicited homosexual men, bringing them back to his home where he sometimes had sex with them before beginning blackmail, and two years later was
transported to Australia. ==Notes and citations==