Name Thomas Garth Role British Army officer | Died 1829 | |
General Thomas Garth (1744–1829) was a British Army officer and chief equerry to King George III.
He was the son of John Garth (1701-1764), Recorder and MP for Devizes, and Rebecca, daughter of John Brompton and granddaughter of Sir Richard Raynsford, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
Thomas Garth entered the army in 1762 as a cornet in the 1st Dragoons, rising to the rank of General by June 1814. Meanwhile, in 1795, he was appointed an equerry to George III. Garth rented Ilsington House at Puddletown, which was often visited by the royal family en route for Weymouth.
General Garth was the father of Thomas (Tommy) Garth of the 15th Hussars (1800-1873), who it is believed was the illegitimate son of Princess Sophia (1777-1848), George III and Queen Charlotte´s fifth daughter. Princess Sophia and Garth were allegedly lovers during the winter of 1799 at Windsor Castle, resulting in the conception of the younger Thomas Garth.
General Garth was appointed by the Prince Regent as guardian to his daughter and heiress, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, during the months prior to her marriage to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (later King of the Belgians). For this service, Garth was presented with a silver salver by the Prince.
General Garth died on 18 November 1829. He left his house, 32 Grosvenor Place, Mayfair, to Tommy Garth. He named his residuary legatee as his nephew, Captain Thomas Garth RN (1781-1841) of Haines Hill, Berkshire.
Captain Garth was the son of General Garth's older brother, Charles (1734–1784) who was an MP and Government Agent for South Carolina, Georgia and Maryland. Another brother, George Garth (abt 1733–1819) was a British General in American Revolutionary War, and Colonel of the 17th Regiment of Foot.