13 Facts About Richard Kane

Brigadier-General Richard Kane was a British Army officer from Ireland who served as the governor of Gibraltar from 1720 to 1727.

Richard Kane served as the governor of Menorca from 1733 to 1736.

At the age of 26, he anglicised his name to Kane and joined a volunteer Protestant regiment in his home town, Carrickfergus, raised to oppose James II's Catholic rule.

Richard Kane enlisted as a Lieutenant in the Antrim Volunteers, part of the Army of the North.

Richard Kane was present at the Battle of the Boyne and Siege of Limerick in 1690.

Richard Kane's regiment was singled out in recognition of its bravery during the 1695 siege of Namur at which he was wounded.

Richard Kane fought under Marlborough in many bloody battles of the War of the Spanish Succession and was severely wounded at Blenheim.

In 1711, Richard Kane sailed to Canada in an unsuccessful expedition under General Jack Hill to take Quebec from the French.

In Menorca, against the interference of the Roman Catholic Church and always short of funds, Richard Kane reformed the legal system, drew up a new constitution, built a road connecting the old Spanish capital, Ciudadela, with Mahon, the new capital, and improved trade by making Mahon a free port.

Richard Kane introduced new agricultural methods and imported new varieties of cereal, new breeds of cattle and drought-resistant clover to feed them.

Richard Kane was formally appointed Governor of Menorca in 1733 and given the rank of brigadier general in 1735.

Richard Kane was buried in the chapel of St Philip's Castle which was later bombed by the Spanish.

Richard Kane left a Narrative of All the Campaigns of King William and the Duke of Marlborough and wrote A New System of Military Discipline for Foot on Action which became the British army's "bible" at the time.