Thomas Howard (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General Thomas Howard (1684 – 31 March 1753) was an officer of the British Army and the ancestor of the family of the present Earls of Effingham.

He was the only suriviving son of George Howard of Great Bookham, by his wife Ann, daughter of Thomas Kidder, of Lewes. George Howard was a younger son of Sir Charles Howard of Eastwick and a great-great-grandson of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham through his second son Sir William Howard of Lingfield; George's elder brother Francis had succeeded as fifth Baron Howard of Effingham in 1681. Thomas Howard was baptised at Great Bookham on 13 August 1684. His father died on 13 December the same year and his mother on 16 September 1704; Howard would raise a memorial to his parents and their children Henry, Frances and Mary in Great Bookham Church on 26 November 1744.

Howard joined the Army as an ensign on 4 February 1703. During the War of the Spanish Succession he served in the Netherlands and Germany under the Duke of Marlborough, and in 1707 was present as a captain in Wade's Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Almanza, where he was taken prisoner. He was a prisoner of war in France for two years, but was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot in 1708 and served at the Battle of Brihuega in 1710, where he was again captured. On 15 November 1711 he was granted brevet rank as a colonel of Foot. Howard was dismissed for his political opinions, but was reinstated by King George I, and in 1717 he purchased the colonelcy of the 24th Regiment of Foot, succeeding General Primrose.

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