John Lambert ( British Army officer ) General Sir John Lambert GCB ( 28 April 1772 – 14 September 1847 ) was a British Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary Wars , the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 . Life . Lambert entered the British Army on 27 January 1791 , as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards , and promoted lieutenant and captain on 9 October 1793 . He served at the sieges of Valenciennes and Dunkirk , and was in the Battle of Lincelles in 1793 . He was adjutant of the third battalion in the campaign of 1794 , served with it during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , and in the expedition to Holland in 1799 . He was promoted captain and lieutenant - colonel on 14 May 1801 . He served in Portugal and Spain in 1808 , and was present at Corunna , and he commanded the light companies of the guards in the Walcheren expedition of 1809 . He became colonel in the army on 25 July 1810 , and embarked for Cadiz in command of the third battalion on 30 May 1811 . In January 1812 , he was sent to Carthagena with two battalions . He remained there three months , and in October he joined Wellington ' s army at Salamanca . On 4 June 1813 he was promoted major - general , and was appointed to a brigade of the sixth division . He commanded at the battles of Nivelle , the Nive , Orthez , and Toulouse , and was Mentioned in Despatches . He was awarded the Army Gold Cross and was made KCB on 2 January 1815 . Having been sent to America , he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham , at the Battle of New Orleans , on 6 January 1815 , with the 7th and 43rd regiments . In the unsuccessful attack on the American intrenchments , made two days afterwards , he commanded the reserve . Pakenham being killed , and General Gibbs mortally wounded , the chief command devolved on Lambert . He decided not to renew the attack , withdrew the troops which had been sent across the Mississippi , and retreating on the 18th , re - embarked his force on the 27th . It proceeded to the bay of Mobile , where Fort Bowyer was taken on 12 February , and next day news arrived that peace had been signed . Lambert returned to Europe in time to command the tenth brigade of British infantry at the Battle of Waterloo . The brigade joined the army from Ghent only on the morning of 18 June , and was at first posted in reserve at Mont St . Jean . After 3 P . M . it was moved up to the front line to support the fifth ( Picton ' s ) division , and one of its regiments , the 27th , which had to be kept in square near La Haye Sainte , lost two - thirds of its men , a heavier loss than that of any other regiment . Lambert was mentioned in Wellington ' s despatch , and received the thanks of parliament , the order of Order of St . Vladimir , 3rd class , and that of Military Order of Max Joseph ( commander ) . He commanded the eighth infantry brigade in the army of occupation in France . He was promoted lieutenant - general on 27 May 1825 , and general on 23 November 1841 . He was given the colonelcy of the 10th regiment on 18 January 1824 , and the G . C . B . on 19 July 1838 . He died at Weston House , Thames Ditton , on 14 September 1847 , aged 75 . Family . In 1816 , he married a daughter of John Morant of Brocklehurst Park , New Forest .