page_title: William Rowan
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: William Rowan / Military career
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Gravure coloriée de la bataille de la Nivelle, livrée le 10 novembre 1813
context_page_description: Field Marshal Sir William Shearman Rowan, GCB was a British Army officer. He served in the Peninsular War and then the Hundred Days, fighting at the Battle of Waterloo and taking part in an important charge led by Sir John Colborne against the Imperial Guard when he was wounded. He later assisted Colborne in Colborne's new role as Acting Governor General of British North America during the rebellions by the Patriote movement in 1837. Rowan returned to Canada as Commander-in-Chief, North America in which role he made an important conciliatory speech in response to the burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal by an angry mob in April 1849.
context_section_description: At the age of 14 years, Rowan was commissioned as an ensign in the 52nd Light Infantry on 4 November 1803 and promoted to lieutenant on 15 June 1804. He was deployed to Sicily in 1806 and to Sweden in 1808 before being promoted to captain and being given command of a company in the 2nd Battalion of his regiment on 19 October 1808.
caption: The Battle of Nivelle where the 52nd Light Infantry played an important part in the victory.
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