General Marcus Beresford
(1800-1876)
31 October 1860

Volume 2, page 67, sitting number 1567.

Marcus Beresford was born 28 July 1800 at Cork in Ireland, the second son of the Honourable and Reverend George Beresford (1776-1842) and grandson of William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies. 

In 1817, he became a 2nd Lieutenant in the 21st Foot, then a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 3rd Foot from 1835 to 1842, when he was placed on half-pay. He was a Colonel in the 20th Foot from 1858 until his death, and a General from 4 March 1866

He married firstly on 1 October 1828 Isabella Sewell (died August 1836) and secondly on 22 January 1838 Caroline Fane (died January 1895).

General Beresford died on 16 March 1876 at Beauchamp House, Leamington Priors, Warwickshire. He left an estate valued at £30,000. 

A short obituary appeared in the Banbury Guardian (23 March 1876): 'The death is announced of General Marcus Beresford, which occurred on Wednesday at his residence at Leamington, in his seventy-sixth year. General Beresford was the second son of the Hon. and Rev. George Beresford, second son of the Dr William Beresford, Archbishop of Tuam, who was created a peer of Ireland in December, 1812, as Baron Decies, and was cousin of the Duchess of Montrose and Lady Ernest Bruce. He entered the army in 1817, and became general in 1866. He served several years with the 3rd (the Buffs) Regiment in India, which regiment he commanded with distinction. For some years he was at the head of the centre division of the Madras army. The colonelcy of the 20th Regiment which has held since 1858 becomes vacant.'