Haldimand, Sir Frederick

▪ British general

born Aug. 11, 1718, Yverdon, Switz.

died June 5, 1791, Yverdon

      British general who served as governor of Quebec province from 1778 to 1786.

      Haldimand entered British service in 1756 as a lieutenant colonel in the Royal American Regiment. He served in Jeffery Amherst's expedition (1760) against Montreal during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, then stayed there as second in command after the French capitulation. In 1762 he became lieutenant governor of Trois-Rivières and in 1767 commander at Pensacola, Fla.

      Haldimand served as commander in chief of the British Army in North America at Boston in 1773–74 and then was recalled to England, denied higher command because of his foreign birth. In 1778, however, during the American Revolution, he succeeded Sir Guy Carleton as governor-in-chief of Quebec. Haldimand conducted no major operations during the war but helped settle loyalist refugees and Native American (First Nations) allies in Canada. His resistance to political pressure from English speakers made him unpopular with the English in Quebec. He returned to England in 1784 and was knighted in 1785.

* * *