of the British occupations of Toulon and Corsica. Between 1794 and 1796 he became first a major and then a lieutenant-colonel, after which he was placed on half-pay with the rank of colonel. In 1799 he married, and was also appointed commissary general of the British forces in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, where he served until evacuation in November 1799. In 1801 he was appointed to the household of the King's brother, the Duke of Kent, who became a close friend. In 1805 he was nominated a member of the parliamentary commission of military inquiry, becoming its chairman later. His experience there led to the offer of a ministerial post in 1807, to serve under William Windham as Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, but he declined. In 1811 he was appointed comptroller of army accounts, and held the office for 25 years until it was abolished in 1835. As well as his administrative duties, he was a director of the Regent's Canal Company, earning respect for handling the company's financial crises until the canal opened in 1820. His last years were spent at Thorncroft Manor, just outside Leatherhead, where although almost totally blind he carried on his literary work. Dying there on 16 January 1844, he was buried at the Church of St Mary & St Nicholas, Leatherhead. Family On 6 June 1799 at St Mary's Church, Putney, he married Eleanor (1766–1848), daughter of Charles Congalton, a captain in the Royal Navy who was laird of Congalton, and his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Baronet, of Minto. Her portrait by Henry Raeburn is in the Hermitage Museum at St Petersburg. She had two older brothers, William and Gilbert, who in turn inherited the estate of Balfour in Fife, which had belonged to the Bethune family since about 1375, and changed their name to Bethune. When Gilbert died in 1837 without children, Eleanor was his heir and became the lady of Balfour. She and her husband both changed their name to Bethune. They had seven children, including: Eleanor, who married the Reverend William Thomas Hadow and was the grandmother of Sir William Henry Hadow. John, a civil servant remembered for promoting women's education in India. Charles, who rose to Admiral in the Royal Navy and was the father of Lieutenant-General Edward Cecil Bethune. Mary, who married Norman James Biggs Uniacke. Georgiana, who married Henry