‘The Presiding Spirit of this Tempest’: A Profile of General Sir James Leith (1763–1816)

Abstract

This article assesses the life, career, and character of Peninsular War General Sir James Leith (1763–1816). Compared with many of his peers, Leith is an overlooked figure, whose episodes in the forefront of events are punctuated by periods of obscurity. Hitherto he has been portrayed without depth, complexity, or nuance solely as an archetypal Napoleonic-era warrior. The latter part of General Leith’s career, however, found him in a more equivocal situation, that of soldier-turned-colonial administrator. Recent scholarship has begun to pursue a more comprehensive approach to figures of Leith’s ilk. Nevertheless, a narrowly myopic, or ‘Victorian’, approach to military historiography has died hard. Numerous Wellingtonian lieutenants who evolved into architects of empire, including Benjamin D’Urban, John Colborne, Harry Smith, and Stapleton Cotton, to name just a few, lack modern, multi-dimensional reassessments, and James Leith is of their number. This article aims to bring facets of both General Leith’s soldiering and his colonial governing into clearer, contemporary focus.