Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fead, George
FEAD, GEORGE (1729?–1815), lieutenant-general, colonel-commandant fourth battalion royal artillery, entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet 1 Sept. 1756, became a lieutenant-fireworker royal artillery 8 June 1756, second lieutenant 1760, first lieutenant 1764, captain-lieutenant 1771, captain 1779, brevet major 1783, regimental major 1792, lieutenant-colonel 1793, brevet colonel 1797, regimental colonel 1799, major-general 1803, lieutenant-general 1810. As a lieutenant-fireworker he was present at the famous siege of Louisburg, Cape Breton, in 1758. He was afterwards taken prisoner at Newfoundland, but exchanged. Returning a second time to America he served there six or seven years, part of the time at Pensacola. He served in Minorca from 1774 to 1781, and commanded the artillery during the memorable defence of Fort St. Philip from August 1780 to February 1781, during which he lost an eye by the bursting of a shell. He was one of the witnesses on the trial of Lieutenant-general Hon. James Murray, the governor, on charges preferred by Sir William Draper [q. v.] He went to Newfoundland a second time in 1790, and in 1794 served under the Duke of York in Flanders. He went to Jamaica in 1799 and commanded the artillery there many years. He was made lieutenant-governor of Port Royal in 1810. Fead died at his residence, Woolwich Common, 20 Nov. 1815, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the fifty-eighth of his military service, thirty years of which had been passed abroad. He had nine sons in the service, several of whom were killed or died on duty abroad.
[Kane's List of Officers Roy. Art. (rev. ed., Woolwich, 1869), in which General Fead's name is spelt ‘Fade,’ while those of his sons in the regiment appear as ‘Fead.’ The latter is the Army List spelling. See also Minutes Roy. Art. Institution, xiv. 172.]