Jump to content

Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/421

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Doyle
415
Doyle

sent both at the battle of Fuentes de Onoro and the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo. On 26 Sept. 1811 he had been promoted lieutenant-colonel in the English army, and on 1 Jan. 1812 he was promoted colonel in the Portuguese service, and was transferred to the 19th regiment of Portuguese infantry, which formed part of Le Cor's Portuguese brigade, attached to Lord Dalhousie's (the 7th) division. He commanded this regiment in the battles of Vittoria and the Pyrenees, and was made a K.T.S. in October 1812. In the winter of 1813, when Lord Dalhousie went to England on leave, General Le Cor took command of the 7th division, and Doyle succeeded him in the 6th Portuguese brigade, which he commanded in the battles of the Nivelle and of Orthes, and afterwards in the march on Bordeaux. On the conclusion of the war Doyle left the Portuguese service. He was made a K.C.B., and he was subsequently appointed once more inspecting officer of militia in Guernsey. He still continued to take a keen interest in the affairs of Portugal, and in June 1823 he chartered a steamer at his own expense in which he took despatches for Dom Pedro to Cadiz. This and other similar acts caused his arrest by Dom Miguel, and he was imprisoned for several months in a cell in Lisbon, and not released until after the strongest representations had been made by the English minister, Sir F. Lamb, afterwards Lord Beauvale. Doyle was M.P. for county Carlow in 1831-2. He still continued to assist Dom Pedro, with both his purse and his services, and acted as major-general and aide-de-camp to Dom Pedro in the defence of Oporto (1832). At the end of the war in 1834 he was most disgracefully treated. He was made to resign his commission on the promise of being paid in full for his expenditure and his services, but he was then put off with excuses and left unpaid. It was Doyle who, by pamphlets and petitions, got the mixed commission appointed to liquidate the claims of the English officers, and this commission paid every English officer except himself. He was made a sort of scapegoat for having got the commission appointed. For many years he was engaged in lawsuits to obtain this money, but he never got it and only sank deeper into difficulties. At last he gave up the quest, and in July 1853 he was appointed one of the military knights of Windsor and a sergeant-at-arms to the queen. He died in the lower ward, Windsor Castle, on 9 Aug. 1856, and was buried with military honours on the green, at the south side of St. George's Chapel.

[Royal Military Calendar, ed. 1820, iv. 370-2; Gent. Mag. September 1856.]

DOYLE, RICHARD (1824–1883), artist and caricaturist, second son of John Doyle [q. v.], was born in London in September 1824. He was educated at home. From his childhood he was accustomed to use his pencil, his instructor being his father. The teaching of the elder Doyle seems to have had for its chief objects the encouraging of a habit of close observation and a ceaseless study of nature. One result of this treatment was that his son, at a very early age, became a designer of exceptional originality. His first published work was 'The Eglinton Tournament; or, the Days of Chivalry revived,' produced in his fifteenth year. But a more remarkable effort belonging to this date is a manuscript 'Journal' which he kept in 1840, and which is now in the print room in the British Museum. Since the artist's death it has been issued (1886) in facsimile, with an interesting introduction by Mr. J. Hungerford Pollen; but those who wish to study this really unique effort must consult the original, the brilliancy and beauty of which but faintly appear in the copy. As the work of a boy of between fifteen and sixteen, this volume is a marvel of fresh and unfettered invention. Most of the artist's more charming qualities are prefigured in its pages; his elves, his ogres, his fantastic combats, and his freakish fun-making are all represented in it; and it may be doubted whether, in some respects, he ever excelled these 'first sprightly runnings' of his fancy. Two years later he published another example of the tournament class, 'A Grand Historical, Allegorical, and Classical Procession,' further described by one of his biographers as 'a humourous pageant ... of men and women who played a prominent part on the world's stage, bringing out into good-humoured relief the characteristic peculiarities of each.' In 1841 'Punch' was established, and in 1843 Doyle, then only nineteen, became one of its regular contributors. He began with some theatrical sketches, but presently was allowed to choose his own subject, and to give full rein to his faculty for playfully graceful en-têtes, borderings, initial letters, and tail-pieces. In a short time he went on to supply cartoons, and, like the rest, to record his pictorial impressions of Bentinck and Russell, Brougham and Disraeli. One of his most fortunate devices for 'Punch' was its cover. This, at first, had from time to time been varied, but the popularity of Doyle's design secured its permanence, and the philosopher of Fleet Street, with his dog Toby, still continues to appear weekly as he depicted them more than forty years ago. During 1849 he contributed to 'Punch' one of his best works, the 'Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe, drawn from ye Quick