Sir Charles Colville was a British military leader who fought in the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

 and in action near the Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General. He was the son of John Colville, 8th Lord Colville of Culross

Among other battles, Colville led the 2nd Brigade in Picton's 3rd Division when it broke through at the Battle of Vitoria

Battle of Vitoria

At the Battle of Vitoria an allied British, Portuguese, and Spanish army under General the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, leading to eventual victory in the Peninsular War.-Background:In July 1812, after...

. Colville led the 4th Division

4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)

The 4th Infantry Division is a regular British Army division with a long history having been present at the Peninsular War the Crimean War , the First World War , and during the Second World War.- Napoleonic Wars :...

 at the time of the Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. They did not fight in that battle, but were based at Halle

Halle, Belgium

Halle , is a Belgian city and municipality in the district Halle-Vilvoorde of the province Flemish Brabant. The city is located on the Brussels-Charleroi Canal and on the Flemish side of the language border that separates Flanders and Wallonia...

 guarding the right flank of Wellington's Army. On 25 June they took the town of Cambrai

Cambrai

Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...

.

He was conferred with the honours Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order

Royal Guelphic Order

The Royal Guelphic Order, sometimes also referred to as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, is a Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent . It has not been conferred by the British Crown since the death of King William IV in 1837, when the personal union of the...

.

From 17 June 1828 to 3 February 1833, Colville was 3rd Governor of Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 when the population of 100,000 (two thirds in slavery) were in semi revolt against the crown. In 1830 he reported that there was "a great deal of bad feeling against His Majesty’s Government continues to prevail and shew itself here… there is an almost total cessation in the payment of taxes..."

Legacy

There is a decorative bush, a member of the legume family which is called Colvillea racemosa

Colvillea racemosa

Colvillea racemosa is a species of legume in the Fabaceae family.It is found only in Madagascar. Its genus is named for Sir Charles Colville, an ex Governor of Mauritius.-Source:...

 in his honour, in fact the genus is called Colvillea

Colvillea

Colvillea is a genus of legume in the Fabaceae family. It is named for Sir Charles Colville, an ex Governor of Mauritius.It contains the following species:* Colvillea racemosa...

In his novel Les Misérables

Les Misérables

Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

 credits Colville (or Maitland

Peregrine Maitland

Sir Peregrine Maitland, KCB, GCB was a British soldier and colonial administrator who played first-class cricket from 1798 to 1808....

) with asking for the surrender of the Imperial Guard and receiving General Cambronne's reply of "Merde

Shit

Shit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...

".