Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Don, George (1757-1832)
DON, Sir GEORGE (1754–1832), general, younger son of Sir Alexander Don, bart., the third baronet of Newton, Berwickshire, was born in 1754. He entered the army as an ensign in the 51st regiment on 26 Dec. 1770, and was promoted lieutenant on 3 June 1774, after he had joined his regiment in Minorca. His soldierly qualities soon attracted the notice of General Johnstone, the governor and commander-in-chief in that island, who took him on his personal staff as aide-de-camp, and he was transferred to the staff of General James Murray, Johnstone's successor, in the same capacity in 1778. General Murray also made him his military secretary, and he filled the important post of chief of the staff during Murray's gallant defence of the castle of St. Philip in Minorca in 1781–2. His services were so conspicuous that Murray warmly recommended him to headquarters, and he was rewarded with a brevet majority on 25 Nov. 1783, and given a substantive majority in the 59th regiment on 21 April 1784. He joined his new regiment, of which he purchased the lieutenant-colonelcy on 9 April 1789, at Gibraltar, and remained in that fortress until 1792, in which year he was summoned to England to take up a staff appointment. He accompanied the Duke of York's army to the Netherlands in 1793, as deputy adjutant-general to Sir James Murray, and as senior officer in that department acted as adjutant-general in 1794, during the absence of Major-general J. H. Craig, and for his services was made an aide-de-camp to the king, and promoted colonel on 26 Feb. 1795. After the departure of the army for England, Don remained in Germany as military commissioner with the Prussian army, until his promotion to the rank of major-general on 1 Jan. 1798, when he was recalled and appointed to command the troops in the Isle of Wight. In September 1799 he was summoned to join the unfortunate expedition to the Helder under the Duke of York in which he commanded the 3rd division, under the immediate command of Sir David Dundas, and he was the general officer selected to bear the flag of truce and open the negotiations which ended in the convention of Alkmaer. Contrary to all the laws and customs of war, he was not released on the conclusion of this convention, but was kept a prisoner in France until June 1800. On his return he rejoined the staff at the Horse Guards as assistant adjutant-general, and in 1804 was appointed second in command of the forces of Scotland. When war with France again broke out he was summoned to London to organise and command a force, consisting chiefly of the king's Hanoverian subjects, which was afterwards known as the King's German Legion, and with this corps and other troops, amounting in all to fourteen thousand men, he sailed for Germany in 1805. He was afterwards superseded by Lord Cathcart (1755–1843) [q. v.], and on the return of this army in 1806, Don, who had been promoted lieutenant-general on 1 Jan. 1803, and colonel of the 96th regiment on 20 Oct. 1805, was appointed lieutenant-governor of Jersey. He commanded at Jersey until his promotion to the rank of general on 4 June 1814, with only a short absence during the Walcheren expedition in 1809. He not only won the affection and respect of the inhabitants of Jersey, but was as successful in securing their loyalty as was Sir John Doyle (1750–1834) [q. v.] in Guernsey, and he kept the island in a good state of defence. Soon after his last promotion he was appointed, on 25 Aug. 1814, to be lieutenant-governor of Gibraltar, in the place of Lieutenant-general Colin Campbell. As the nominal governor of Gibraltar, the Duke of Kent, was an absentee, Don was practically the governor of that fortress until the duke's death, and as Lord Chatham, his successor, was generally on leave, he continued to be the chief officer there until his retirement in April 1831, when he was transferred to the governorship of Scarborough Castle. He died 1 Jan. 1832. He was appointed colonel of the 7th West India regiment (1799–1805), of the 36th regiment on 4 April 1818, and transferred to the colonelcy of the 3rd regiment, the Buffs, on 21 Dec. 1829; he was made G.C.H. in 1816 and G.C.B. in 1820 (in recognition of his long service as equerry to the Duke of Cambridge, whose household he had joined on its formation). Don, whose service in the army exceeded sixty-one years, was buried in the garrison church of Gibraltar with full military honours on 4 Jan. 1832, and a monument is erected to him there.
[Royal Military Calendar; Army Lists; Gent. Mag. March 1832.]