Robert Craufurd Major - General Robert Craufurd ( 5 May 1764 – 23 January 1812 ) was a Scottish soldier . After a military career which took him from India to the Netherlands , he was given command of the Light Division in the Napoleonic Peninsular War under the Duke of Wellington . Craufurd was a strict disciplinarian and somewhat prone to violent mood swings which earned him the nickname " Black Bob " . He was mortally wounded storming the lesser breach in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo on 19 January 1812 and died four days later . Craufurd was born at Newark , Ayrshire , the third son of Sir Alexander Crauford , 1st Baronet ( see Crauford Baronets ) , and the younger brother of Sir Charles Craufurd . After a military career which took him from India to the Netherlands , he found himself commanding a brigade during the Peninsular War in 1808 . By 1809 he was in charge of the Light Brigade , which was composed of the elite foot soldiers in the army at the time . Despite his fearsome reputation , Crauford made the Light Brigade into a renowned fighting unit . As a soldier he was as tough as any of the men he commanded , and would never ask them to do anything or take any risk that he was not willing to take himself . Nothing demonstrated this better than the manner of his own death , when he was shot in the spine whilst assaulting the breach at Ciudad Rodrigo . He was not killed outright , but spent 5 days in agony before succumbing to his wounds . Career . Craufurd entered the 25th Foot in 1779 . As captain in the 75th regiment , he first saw active service against Tippoo Sahib in 1790 - 92 . The next year he was employed on attachment , under his brother Charles , with the Austrian armies operating against the French . Returning to England in 1797 , he soon saw further service , as a lieutenant - colonel , on Lake ' s staff in the Irish rebellion . A year later , he was British commissioner on Suvarov ' s staff when the Russia ns invaded Switzerland , and at the end of 1799 , was in the Holder expedition . This first hand experience of Continental warfare would prove useful later in his career . From 1801 to 1805 , Lieutenant - Colonel Craufurd sat in parliament for East Retford , but in 1807 , he resumed active service with Whitelock in the Buenos Aires expedition , where he was forced to surrender a British brigade . He was almost the only one of the senior officers who added to his reputation in this disastrous affair , and in 1808 he received a brigade command under Sir John Moore . His regiments were heavily engaged in the earlier part of the famous retreat , but were not present at Corunna , having been detached to Vigo , whence they returned to England . Later , in 1809 , once more in the Peninsula , Brigadier - General Craufurd was three marches or more in rear of Wellesley ' s army when a report came in that a great battle was in progress . The march which followed is one almost unparalleled in military annals . The three battalions of the Light Division ( 43rd , 52nd and 95th ) started in full marching order , and arrived at the front on the day after the Battle of Talavera , having covered 62 m . in twenty - six hours . Beginning their career with this famous march these regiments and their chief , under whom served such men as Charles and William Napier , Shaw and Colborne , soon became celebrated as one of the best corps of troops in Europe , and almost every engagement following added to their laurels . Craufurd ' s operations on the Coa and Agueda in 1810 were daring to the point of rashness ; the drawing on of the French forces into what became the Battle of Coa in particular was a rare lapse in judgement that almost saw his removal from command . Although Wellington censured him for his conduct , he at the same time increased his force from brigade - strength to division - strength by the addition of two picked regiments of Portuguese " Caçadores " . The conduct of the renowned Light Division at Busaco is described by Napier in one of his most vivid passages . The winter of 1810 - 1811 , Craufurd spent in England , and his division was commanded in the interim by another officer . He reappeared on the field of the battle of Fuentes d ' Onoro amidst the cheers of his men , and nothing could show his genius for war better than his conduct on this day , in covering the strange readjustment of his line which Wellington was compelled to make in the face of the enemy . A little later , he obtained major - general ' s rank ; and on 19 January 1812 , as he stood on the glacis of Ciudad Rodrigo , directing the stormers of the Light Division , he fell mortally wounded . His body was carried out of action by his staff officer , Lieutenant Shaw of the 43rd , and , after lingering four days , he died . He was buried in the breach of the fortress where he had met his death , and a monument in St Paul ' s cathedral commemorates Craufurd and Mackinnon , the two generals killed at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo . The exploits of Craufurd and the Light Division are amongst the most cherished traditions of the British and Portuguese armies . One of the quickest and most brilliant , if not the very first , of Wellington ' s generals , he had a fiery temper , which rendered him a difficult man to deal with , but to the day of his death he possessed the confidence and affection of his men in an extraordinary degree . Major - General Crauford was nicknamed ' Black Bob ' . The nickname is supposed to refer to his habit of heavily cursing when losing his temper , his nature as a strict disciplinarian and even to his noticeably dark and heavy facial stubble . During the First World War , a " Lord Clive " class monitor was named for hims , HMS " General Crauford "