Born in France and hailing from a Huguenot family, in 1698 Ligonier escaped from France and travelled via Utrecht and England to Ireland to seek sanctuary with his relatives there. On 22 February 1702 he obtained naturalization as an Englishman and took service in Flanders as a volunteer in the British force commanded by John Cutts, Baron Cutts. He served with such distinction at the storming of Liège that he was allowed to purchase a captaincy in the 10th regiment of foot (Lord North and Grey's) in 1703.
Having served with his regiment at the battles of the Schellenberg and Blenheim in 1704, Ligonier fought with it at Ramillies in 1706 and later in the same year led an assault column in an attack on the fortress of Menin, after the fall of which his bravery was rewarded with the brevet rank of major. He returned briefly to Britain in 1708, when it was feared that a Jacobite rising was imminent, then was present at the battles of Oudenarde and Wynandael and at the siege of Tournai in 1709 before coming close to death at the battle of Malplaquet. During an assault by a brigade containing his regiment on the well-defended French position in the wood of Taisnieres, Ligonier is said to have had his clothes virtually shredded by musket balls—none of which (variously estimated in number at between twenty and twenty-three) wounded him.
The year 1711 brought a change of theatre for Ligonier and he was appointed to serve on the staff in Spain, initially in the post of major of brigade and subsequently as assistant adjutant-general. Late in 1711 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the 12th regiment of foot (Phillips's) and almost immediately secured for his youngest brother, Francis, an ensign's commission in that regiment. Francis Augustus Ligonier [formerly François-Auguste de Ligonier] (1693–1746) had been born in Castres and had moved to England in 1710. Although their brother, Anthony, was also an officer in the British army, the careers of John and Francis were to be especially closely linked until Francis's death. In 1712 John Ligonier received the brevet of colonel and the appointment of adjutant-general in Spain; the war in the Iberian peninsula drawing to a close, in 1713 he was appointed to the lieutenant-governorship of the newly acquired island of Minorca.
Minorca constituted an important Mediterranean base for Britain. Its large, deep-water anchorage of Port Mahon provided shelter for a fleet able to threaten France's naval base of Toulon. During his three-year posting to the island Ligonier oversaw enormous improvements in its fortifications and armaments. In 1716 he and his brother Francis returned to England and transferred regiments, Ligonier to the position of lieutenant-colonel of the 4th regiment of horse (Lord Windsor's) and his brother to that of cornet in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (the Blues). In 1719 Ligonier was able to rediscover his skills as a staff officer in the post of adjutant-general to the expedition to Vigo Bay led by Richard Temple, first Viscount Cobham, and commanded the assault on the arsenal at Ponte Vedras.
In 1720 Ligonier received the first of his many regimental colonelcies, perhaps the one with which he has been most associated: that of the 8th regiment of horse (later the 7th dragoon guards). He retained this colonelcy for twenty-nine years, and the regiment maintained its association with him for two centuries by using his crest on its appointments and as its cap badge. He was remarkable for his diligence as the regiment's colonel, maintaining an additional surgeon at his own expense and transforming the regiment into one of the finest of the British cavalry. In 1720, too, Francis Ligonier obtained his lieutenancy in the blues, and in 1722 he transferred to the 9th regiment of dragoons (Wynne's) with the rank of captain; in 1729 he was promoted to his elder brother's regiment as its major and subsequently to executive command as its lieutenant-colonel. During this period John Ligonier had a sexual relationship with Penelope Miller, of Southwark; they had a daughter, also called Penelope (b. c.1727). Ligonier's regiment remained on the Irish establishment until 1742, forming part of the cavalry garrison of the island, but Ligonier himself was often absent in England, where his position at court gradually grew in importance: he was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber to George I in 1724 and aide-de-camp to George II in 1729. He was also active in the court of the lord lieutenant when in Ireland, becoming a governor of Kilmainham veterans' hospital and from 1736 sharing the sinecure of chief ranger of Ireland with his brother Francis and Lord John Sackville. Ligonier managed, unusually, to combine a friendship with Frederick, prince of Wales, with the retention of the confidence of the prince's father, George II, who had him promoted brigadier-general in 1736 and major-general in 1739, on the outbreak of war with Spain.
The War of Jenkins's Ear necessitated Ligonier's return to active duty in Ireland, where he became governor of the Charles Fort at Kinsale and commander of the forces in south-west Ireland with responsibility for making preparations against a possible invasion. Once the invasion scare lessened, in 1741, Ligonier was ordered to accompany George II to Hanover, initially as commander of Danish troops hired for the protection of the electorate against a Franco-Prussian invasion, and later as commander of a Hessian force hired for the same purpose.
As the War of the Austrian Succession began, so Britain's Hanoverian interests and network of alliances and rivalries with the continental European powers gradually drew her into the growing conflict. Initially, Ligonier's role was that of a senior staff liaison officer between the king, John Dalrymple, second earl of Stair, the commander-in-chief, and John Carteret, second Baron Carteret, the secretary of state for the northern department. By 1743 he had secured a field command—that of the 2nd division—in the army in Germany, with which came his temporary promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general. His command comprised an infantry regiment of a single battalion, a composite grenadier battalion—formed for use as assault troops—and a regiment of dragoons; he also had deputy command of the British cavalry force. In this role Ligonier participated in the battle of Dettingen on 27 June 1743, the last battle at which a British sovereign took the field, and after the battle he was one of four generals created KB (12 July 1743). Set against the honour of knighthood was the fact that his brother Francis had been badly wounded at the battle while in executive command of Ligonier's regiment of horse, which distinguished itself in the action and suffered in consequence. The regiment remained in Flanders until 1747, although Francis Ligonier left it in 1745 to become colonel of the newly raised 59th regiment of foot. During its five years on active service, thirty-seven of the non-commissioned officers and troopers of Ligonier's horse received commissions for distinguished service: such a record is without parallel for the period and reflects not only the care taken in the selection of recruits by the Ligonier brothers but also the esprit de corps of the regiment itself. For the campaign of 1745 Ligonier was given the command of the infantry with the title general of foot. As such he commanded the British, Hanoverian, and Hessian infantry at the battle of Fontenoy in that year, carefully controlling the withdrawal of the defeated army from the battlefield. After the start of the Jacobite rising in Scotland in 1745, Ligonier was sent back to Britain in command of ten infantry battalions which were withdrawn from the fighting on the continent in order to confront the crisis at home. His brother Francis was appointed to the colonelcy of the 13th dragoons, following the death of the regiment's previous colonel at the battle of Prestonpans, and was thus in the rare position of holding two regimental colonelcies simultaneously. Ligonier himself was given command of a force of fourteen regiments, the role of which was to concentrate in the midlands of England and form a ‘stop-line’ beyond which the rebels could not pass. Ceding his command late in November 1745 to William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, the second son of George II, shortly before the rebels evaded the stop-line and advanced to Derby, Ligonier remained in command of the reserve forces in England while the action moved to Scotland. During the time he was away from the scene of events, Ligonier received the news that Francis, while serving as commander of the dragoon brigade at the battle of Falkirk early in 1746, had exacerbated a chest infection. Francis died in Edinburgh on 25 January 1746 and was buried there about five days later, leaving his two natural children, Edward Ligonier (1740?–1782) and Frances, from his relationship with Anne Murray, née Freeman, a widow, to the care of their uncle.
In 1746, with the rebels on their way to defeat at Culloden, Ligonier returned to the continent as commander-in-chief of the British forces and their mercenary allies. His rank as a lieutenant-general was confirmed by the king in mid-1746 in order to give him standing among the allies, and later in the year he was promoted to the rank of general of horse. In October 1746 he commanded the British forces at the battle of Rocoux, where the allies were defeated by the French army commanded by Marshal Maurice de Saxe.
In 1747 Ligonier's campaigning continued and, at Laffeldt in July, this 66-year-old Anglicized Frenchman, in his last battle, commanded a cavalry charge which saved the hard-pressed British infantry at a critical moment. Bold and necessary though this action was, it resulted in Ligonier's capture, an event which made him fear summary execution for treason. Instead, however, he was kindly treated by Louis XV, who entertained him, rewarded his two carabinier captors with battlefield commissions, and used Ligonier as a paroled intermediary to investigate the possibilities of peace. He was exchanged before the end of the year, was appointed lieutenant-general of the ordnance in March 1748, and took little part in the last year of the War of the Austrian Succession.
The next eight years of peace in Europe were years of social consolidation and reward for Ligonier. In 1748 he was appointed governor of the French protestant hospital, La Providence, in London, and, without canvassing, he was elected MP for Bath in succession to Field Marshal George Wade; he secured a suitable marriage for his natural daughter, to Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Graham of the 1st foot guards, in the same year. In 1749 he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 2nd dragoon guards, received the sinecure post of governor of Guernsey, was sworn of the privy council, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1750 he bought the estate of Cobham Place in Surrey, in 1752 he exchanged the governorship of Guernsey for that of Plymouth, and in 1753 he was appointed colonel of the Royal Horse Guards Blue—a rank and position reflective not only of great prestige but also of considerable royal favour.
Since the vacant post of master-general was not filled until 1756, Ligonier's role as lieutenant-general of the ordnance put him in control of the matériel of the Royal Navy and the army, as well as the logistic support of the latter: for eight years he held the most senior professional military post in the realm. As Britain drifted, through escalating skirmishes in America and India in 1754 and 1755, towards the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756, Ligonier confronted the last great military test of his long and distinguished career. His military position as effective head of the ordnance brought him increasingly into the cockpit of political intrigue, the ramifications of which led to the appointment of Charles Spencer, third duke of Marlborough, as master-general of the ordnance in 1756. In the same year Ligonier was promoted to the substantive rank of general on the duke of Cumberland's staff, retaining his ordnance duties since Marlborough had few pretensions to military professionalism. Ligonier's promotion was in the gift of George II, who consulted him over military matters in preference to Cumberland, a favouritism which did not help relations between the duke and Ligonier.
1757 saw Cumberland posted to Germany to defend Hanover and Ligonier left in effective command of the army at home and in America. Ligonier's post meant that he had direct access to both the king and his ministers and was thus in a very strong position to influence administrative and strategic decisions at a time of escalating crises. The corps of engineers received military status, and the first of several assaults, albeit abortive, was launched on the French coast: both these acts bore Ligonier's stamp. The capitulation of Cumberland at Klosterzeven in September 1757 destroyed his credibility with his father—necessitating his resignation from all his military offices—and left a vacuum at the head of the army. As the only senior soldier to command the confidence of both George II and the government, Ligonier was the obvious choice to succeed Cumberland, which he did late in the year with the title of general and commander-in-chief. Ligonier was also promoted to the colonelcy of the 1st regiment of foot guards, a prized post vacated by Cumberland, elevated to the Irish peerage with the title Viscount Ligonier of Enniskillen, and created a field marshal.
Ligonier's leadership of the army, together with the command of the navy of Admiral George Anson, Baron Anson, and the ability as a speaker in the Commons and as a war minister of William Pitt the elder, made a great contribution to Britain's decisive victory in 1763. Ligonier's personality made him easy to work with, his extensive experience and battlefield bravery commanded natural respect, and his network of social connections, built up over a long life, opened doors and smoothed paths. He had an acute eye for military talent, and many deserving officers owed their advancement to his patronage; this was especially so in the American theatre of the war, in which his protégés Jeffrey Amherst, James Wolfe, and William Howe distinguished themselves. His physical robustness and undiminished mental powers had been a matter of remark by contemporaries, but the strain imposed by the war inevitably took a periodic toll upon a man in his late seventies. Despite occasional bouts of illness, including an especially serious one in late 1760, Ligonier maintained a tight grip on the army's administration and activities, actively contributing to strategic decisions and pursuing policies which had far-reaching consequences for the army, such as the establishment of regiments of light horse and the embodiment and training of the long-neglected English militia. His commitment and activity were rewarded in 1759 by his appointment as master-general of the ordnance, an appointment which, when combined with that of commander-in-chief, gave him undisputed political and military control of Britain's land forces at a time when the threat of a French invasion was all too real. This combination of posts had previously been held only by the first duke of Marlborough; it would later be held by the first duke of Wellington.
The ending of the war in 1763 resulted in the wholesale reduction in the size of the army and in Ligonier's removal from the post of master-general. Although he nominally remained as commander-in-chief, he lost both the staff support and the salary of that office. In recognition of his services, on 27 April 1763 he was created Baron Ligonier in the peerage of Great Britain, by which he exchanged his seat in the House of Commons for one in the House of Lords, but he received no financial compensation for the resultant and sudden drop in his income. On 20 May 1762 he had been given a further Irish viscountcy, with remainder to his nephew Edward.
Ligonier's powers were clearly gradually failing during the final five years of his life, and his age was given as the reason for his removal from the post of commander-in-chief in 1766. His retirement from the post to which he had contributed so much was marked by his elevation in the British peerage to the title of Earl Ligonier. Retaining his colonelcy of the 1st regiment of foot guards to the end, Ligonier died on 28 April 1770, probably at his London home in North Audley Street, and was buried at Cobham parish church a few days afterwards.
Ligonier made few enemies during his long life, achieved lasting friendships with both sexes, and maintained a justified reputation as both lover and soldier. Widely respected and just as sincerely mourned by contemporaries, he combined, in Horace Walpole's words, the 'gallant gaiety of his nation' (GEC, Peerage, 7.656) with a robust single-mindedness thought characteristic of Britain, a country which he served so long and so loyally as one of the most distinguished British army officers of the eighteenth century.
