# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connell, Maurice Charles Philip

Date of birth 1768 in the ODNB.
​O'CONNELL, Sir MAURICE CHARLES PHILIP (d. 1848), lieutenant-general, was son of Charles Philip O'Connell, a younger son of John O'Connell of Ballinabloun. A tall, strapping, penniless lad, the son of a younger son, he appears, like others of his relatives, to have been dependent on the bounty of his kinsman, Count Daniel O'Connell [q. v.], of the Irish brigade. He was at first intended for the Roman catholic priesthood. ‘He has been here two or three years on one of Dr. Connell's bursaries, and now declines the church,’ the count writes of him from Paris in 1784 (Mrs. O'Connell, Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade, ii. 34). The lad wished to study physic. In 1785 ​the count writes quite jubilantly: ‘Charles Philip's son is provided for. I have sent him down to his colledge. I have properly rigged him out, and given him ten guineas to defray his journey and first expenses, and have mentioned him to his superiors, who are all my friends’ (ib.) Presumably this was a military college. In 1792 he was serving as a captain in the French emigrants with the Duke of Brunswick on the French frontier. When the Irish brigade was taken into British pay he was appointed captain in Count Daniel O'Connell's regiment, the 4th regiment of the Irish brigade, from 1 Oct. 1794, and served with it in the West Indies until it was broken up and he was put on half-pay. He obtained a company in the 1st West India regiment on 12 May 1800, and served with it at St. Lucia, and was afterwards brigade-major at Surinam until the colony was given up at the peace of Amiens. In May 1803 he was detached with five companies to Grenada, and went thence with the whole of his regiment to Dominica. He commanded the light company and a party of the 46th when a much superior French force attacked Le Roseau, but were defeated, on 22 Feb. 1805. He was made brevet major on 1 June 1805, and appointed brigade-major in Dominica, and afterwards major in the old 5th West India regiment. He received the thanks of the House of Assembly, and was presented by it with a sword of the value of one hundred guineas. He also was presented with a valuable sword by the Patriotic Society at Lloyd's. On 15 Oct. 1806 he was appointed major in the 73rd foot, of which he became lieutenant-colonel on 4 May 1809. He landed in Sydney that year with the 1st battalion 73rd, bringing with him a commission to act as lieutenant-governor of New South Wales and its dependencies. He remained there until 1814, when the battalion was ordered to Ceylon. He commanded it during the war in Kandy in 1815. He retired on half-pay on the return home of the regiment. He became a major-general on 22 July 1830, was knighted and made K.C.H. in 1834, became a lieutenant-general 9 Nov. 1841, and was appointed colonel 80th foot in 1844. He returned to New South Wales in 1838 as major-general commanding the forces, which post he held until relieved by Major-general Wynyard. He administered the government from 12 July to 2 Aug. 1846. Thenceforth, although he remained in the colony and was very popular, he took no active part in public affairs. He died at Sydney on 25 May 1848.
Soon after his first arrival in Sydney O'Connell married Mary Putland, the widowed daughter of the deposed governor Bligh [see Bligh, William], by whom he had two sons and one daughter. The elder son was the well-known Australian statesman, Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell [q. v.] Lady O'Connell died in 1864.
[Mrs. O'Connell's Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade, vol. ii.; Army Lists; Ellis's Hist. 1st West Indian Regiment; Cannon's Hist. Records of Brit. Army, 46th and 73rd Regiments; Gent. Mag. 1848, pt. ii. p. 543; Heaton's Dict. Australian Biography.]
H. M. C.