Sir guy carleton biography for kids

He twice served as Governor of the Province of Quebec , from to , concurrently serving as Governor General of British North America in that time, and again from to He commanded British troops in the American Revolutionary War , first leading the defence of Quebec during the rebel invasion , and the counteroffensive that drove the rebels from the province.

In and , he led as the commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America. In this capacity he was notable for carrying out the Crown's promise of freedom to slaves who joined the British, and he oversaw the evacuation of British forces, Loyalists , and more than 3, freedmen from New York City in to transport them to a British colony.

The military and political career of his younger brother, Thomas Carleton , was interwoven with his own, and Thomas served under him in the Canadas. Guy Carleton was born into an Ulster Protestant military family that had lived in Ulster in the north of the Kingdom of Ireland since the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century, and was one of three brothers the others being Thomas Carleton and William Carleton who served in the British military.

Guy also had a sister, Connolly Crawford. When he was fourteen his father, Christopher Carleton, died, and his mother, Catherine Carleton, then married Reverend Alexander Skelton, who took responsibility for his education.

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In , at the age of seventeen, Carleton was commissioned as an ensign into the 25th Regiment of Foot , in which in he was promoted to lieutenant. During this period he became a friend of James Wolfe ; he may have served with Wolfe at the Battle of Culloden during the Jacobite rising of In the War of the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe.

Despite British troops having been engaged on the European continent since , it was not until that Carleton and his regiment were despatched to Flanders.