Born in Cheshire, John Byrne Skerrett was the only son of Lieutenant General John Nicholas Skerrett. He was appointed
ensign in the
99th Regiment of Foot in 1783, lieutenant 79th Foot in 1784, lieutenant 19th Foot in 1791, captain 123rd Foot in 1795, captain 69th Foot 1795, major 83rd Foot in 1798, lieutenant-colonel 83rd Foot in 1800,
half-pay 1803, lieutenant-colonel 10th Battalion Reserve in 1803, lieutenant-colonel 47th Foot in 1804,
brevet colonel in 1810 and major-general in 1813. In the
Peninsular War he was with his regiment in
Cádiz in 1809 when appointed to the command of the 2nd British Brigade (2/47th (Lancashire) and 20th Portuguese Infantry, two battalions) in May. Then Skerrett and his own regiment, the 2/47th, was detached as part of the doomed attempt to aid the beleaguered Spanish garrison at
Tarragona. Skerrett and his detachment rejoined the force at Cádiz in July. Skerrett was commander of the British defending force at the
Siege of Tarifa in 1811 and 1812, and participated in the
Battle of the Triana Bridge in 1812. He was a brigade commander under Sir
Thomas Graham in the
Netherlands from 1813 to 1814 and died in the assault on
Bergen op Zoom in 1814. There is a memorial to Skerrett in the north transept of
St Paul's Cathedral, London, and another, raised by his mother, was in St George's Porch of St Nicholas' Church, Newcastle upon Tyne (now
Newcastle Cathedral) in the early 19th century. ==References==