
Daderot · PD
John Manners, Marquess of Granby
Details
The story
If you drink in England you have probably passed this man's name on a pub sign. There are more taverns called the Marquess of Granby than are named for almost anyone else, and John Manners earned it. He led the British cavalry in the Seven Years' War, and at Warburg in 1760 he charged so hard he lost his hat and wig, which is said to have given the language the phrase going at it bald-headed. When his soldiers grew too old or too broken to serve, he paid to set them up as innkeepers, and they thanked him by naming their houses after him. Reynolds painted him around 1766, the year he became commander-in-chief of the army, in the red coat of the general the troops actually liked.




