Sir John Moore

Sir John Moore was the Glasgow-born general who reformed the British army and died a hero’s death at the Battle of Corunna. Famous for training the light infantry that would go on to win Wellington’s battles, he is remembered in one of the best-known poems of the age.

A Trongate boy

Moore was born in the Trongate, in the very heart of Glasgow, in 1761, the son of a well-known Glasgow doctor and writer. He joined the army at fifteen and saw service across the world, from the American War of Independence to Corsica, the West Indies, Ireland and Egypt.

Father of the light infantry

Moore’s lasting achievement was the training camp he created at Shorncliffe, where he forged a new kind of soldier: the disciplined, intelligent and fast-moving light infantryman. The regiments he trained became the famous Light Division, and his humane methods shaped the British army for a century. His story belongs to the wider history of Glasgow and war.

Corunna

In 1808 Moore was given command of the British army in Spain during the Peninsular War. Outnumbered, he led a gruelling winter retreat to the coast at Corunna, and there, on 16 January 1809, fought off the pursuing French to let his men escape by sea, only to be mortally wounded by a cannonball. His burial was immortalised in Charles Wolfe’s famous poem, ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna’. A statue of Moore stands today among the gallery of the great that rings George Square.