Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake (27 July 1744 – 20 February 1808) was a British general. He commanded British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and later served as Commander-in-Chief of the military in British India. Background He was the son of Lancelot Charles Lake (d. 1751) of Harrow-on-the-Hill and his wife Letitia Gumley, daughter of John Gumley. He was educated at Eton College. Lake entered the foot guards in 1758, becoming lieutenant (captain in the army) in 1762, captain (lieutenant-colonel) in 1776, major in 1784, and lieutenant colonel in 1792, by which time he was a general officer in the army. He served with his regiment in Germany between 1760 and 1762, and with a composite battalion in the Battle of Yorktown of 1781. After this he was equerry to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. His younger brother Warwick served as a groom of the bedchamber for the Prince, and later oversaw his stables of racehorses. In 1790, he became a major-general, and in 1793 was appointed to command the Guards Brigade in the Duke of York and Albany's army in Flanders during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was in command at the successful Battle of Lincelles on 18 August 1793, and served on the continent (except for a short time when seriously ill) until April 1794. He later sold his lieutenant-colonelcy in the guards, and became colonel of the 53rd Regiment of Foot and governor of Limerick in Ireland. In 1797 he was promoted to lieutenant-general. American War of Independence As lieutenant-colonel Lake went out with drafts to America in the spring of 1781, made the campaign in North Carolina under Lord Cornwallis, and commanded the grenadiers of the guards and of the old 80th royal Edinburgh regiment in a sortie, under Colonel Robert Abercromby, from the British lines at York Town, which inflicted heavy loss on the French and American besiegers, on 11 October that year. After the surrender of Cornwallis's force [on 19 October 1781] Lake remained prisoner on parole until the end of the war. Hugh Wodehouse Pearse reports that "Lake was one of the three field officers selected by lot to take charge of the troops in captivity, but, as he was anxious for private reasons to proceed to England, Major Gordon of the 76th [80th] Regiment generously volunteered to take his place. Major, then Lieut.-Colonel, Gordon died in captivity. 1798