He was son of
John Cradock,
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. In 1775 he was admitted to
St John's College, Cambridge. In 1777, he was appointed a
cornet in the
4th Regiment of Horse, which in 1779 he exchanged to become an ensign in the
Coldstream Guards, and in 1781 he was promoted a lieutenant with the rank of captain. In 1785 he purchased a commission as a major in the
12th Dragoons, exchanging this in 1786 for a post in the
13th Foot, where he was appointed lieutenant-colonel in 1789. He commanded the 13th in the West Indies in 1790, and served a second time in the West Indies commanding a battalion of grenadiers in 1793, where he was wounded at the reduction of Martinique and appointed the aide-de-camp of
Sir Charles Grey, receiving the thanks of Parliament for his services. In 1795 he was appointed colonel of the
127th Foot, and placed on half-pay when that regiment was reduced in 1797. He was appointed major-general in 1798, and served in the
Irish Rebellion of 1798 as quartermaster-general in Ireland, seeing action the
Battle of Vinegar Hill. He accompanied Cornwallis in his campaign against the French forces landed in Ireland, and was severely wounded at the
Battle of Ballinamuck. Cradock entered the
Irish House of Commons for
Clogher in 1785. In 1790, he stood as
Member of Parliament for
Castlebar, a seat he held until 1798. He then represented
Midleton from 1799 to 1800 and subsequently
Thomastown to the
Act of Union in 1801. The year before he had been appointed to command the second battalion of the
54th Foot, and again placed on half-pay when that battalion was reduced in 1802. In 1803 he was appointed to the
71st Foot. In 1801 he was on the staff in the Mediterranean under Sir
Ralph Abercromby, seeing action several times and serving as second-in-command of a division in the field. After the surrender of Cairo and Alexandria, at which he was present, he was despatched with a force to occupy Corsica and Naples, but was recalled en route after the Peace of Amiens was signed. He was then appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
Madras Army; after the departure of
Lord Lake he commanded the whole of the forces in the
Iberian Peninsula for almost a year. In 1808 he was appointed to command the forces in Portugal, handing over command to
Arthur Wellesley on 22April 1809. From there he moved to the command of the
43rd (Monmouthshire) Light Infantry in January 1809, briefly serving as the
Governor of Gibraltar later that year. In 1811 he was appointed Governor of the
Cape Colony and commander of the forces on that station, resigning in 1814 and being succeeded by
Lord Charles Somerset. He was promoted full general in 1814, elevated to the
Peerage of Ireland as Baron Howden in 1819, and to the
Peerage of the United Kingdom under the same title in 1831. The town of
Cradock, South Africa, is named after him. On 17 November 1798, Cradock married Lady Theodosia Sarah Frances Meade (b. c. 1773; d. 13 Dec 1853), Lady Theodosia was the daughter of
John Meade, 1st Earl of Clanwilliam. Cradock named the town of
Clanwilliam, South Africa, after his father-in-law. ==Notes==