John Le Marchant (British Army officer, born 1766)

Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant (9 February 1766 – 22 July 1812) was a British Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He has been described as one of the finest British cavalry commanders of his generation, and was also an intellectual soldier who had a great influence on the efficient functioning of the British army. Le Marchant was instrumental in founding the first British military academy and staff college, and he saw active service in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Peninsular War, where he was killed in action at the Battle of Salamanca.