Service
Becoming a captain in 1793, Donkin was on active service in the West Indies in the next year, gaining promotion to major in 1796. At the age of twenty-five he became a lieutenant-colonel and in 1798 led a light battalion with distinction in the Ostend expedition. He served with Cathcart in Denmark in 1807 and two years later was given a brigade of three regiments in the army in Portugal, which he led in victory at the Second Battle of Porto (May 1809).
On the day prior of the Battle of Talavera (July 1809), an advance French force surprised Donkin's brigade (positioned ahead of the main British army) before they could post pickets: the British lost over 400 casualties. Donkin fell back, rallied the men at the main line and led the brigade throughout the battle.
Donkin was then transferred, in the role of quartermaster-general, to the Mediterranean command. He served there from 1810 to 1813, taking part in the Catalonian expeditions. In July 1815, the now Major-General Donkin was posted to India, distinguishing himself as a divisional commander in Hastings's operations against the Mahrattas (1817–1818), receiving the KCB as his reward. The death of his young wife Elizabeth Frances née Markham seriously affected him, after that he went to the Cape of Good Hope on extended sick leave. From 1820 to 1821 he administered the Cape Colony with success as acting Governor, and named the rising seaport of Algoa Bay Port Elizabeth in memory of his wife. In 1821 he became lieutenant-general and a member of the GCH.
Read more about this topic: Rufane Shaw Donkin
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