In Ireland, he was critical of the policy of coercion used to break the United Irish movement for representative government and national independence.

Rawdon was posted at Boston as a lieutenant in the 5th Regiment of Foot's Grenadier company, which was then under the command of Captain Francis Marsden.

[7] When the troops of the third assault began to falter, Rawdon stood atop of the American redoubt, waving the British ensign.

[8] Lord Rawdon is depicted in John Trumbull's famous painting, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

He participated in the battles of the New York Highlands, where on 7 October, Fort Constitution (opposite West Point) was captured.

[13] Rawdon was sent to Philadelphia with dispatches and returned to New York for the winter, where he raised a regiment, called the Volunteers of Ireland, recruited from deserters and Irish Loyalists.

Perhaps his most noted achievement was the victory in 1781 at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, in which, in command of only a small force, he defeated by superior military skill and determination, a much larger body of Americans.

He relieved the Siege of Ninety-Six, evacuating its small garrison and conducting a limited pursuit of American troops.

On his return to Great Britain, he was captured at sea by François Joseph Paul de Grasse, but was exchanged.

In the Irish Parliament, Rawdon associated on most questions with the Patriot party of Henry Grattan and Lord Charlemont.

[23][24] In January 1793, he had received the delegates of the Catholic Committee, including as their agent Theobald Wolfe Tone, in London and helped arrange their audience with the king.

When rumours followed that Rawdon might replace the Earl of Westmorland as Irish Viceroy, Tone, a United Irishman, approached him in hopes of being appointed his private secretary.

[14] While alarmed by the drift of the United Irishmen, despairing of reform, toward insurrection, Rawdon denounced the government's policy of coercion.

Tone responded that "Lord Moira" was the only person that might conceivably fill such a role, but that he had "blown his reputation to pieces by accepting a command against France".

(Tone's larger objection was that the Presbyterians, who he was in no doubt would "direct the public sentiment in framing a government", were "thoroughly enlightened and sincere republicans").

He headed the list of subscribers in Bengal to the Irish Harp Society formed in Belfast "to revive the Ancient Music of Ireland" by veterans of the patriotic and reform politics of the 1780s and '90s, among them several former United Irishmen.

Prior to leaving for India, in 1812 Rawdon had also used his offices to secure a position—registrar of the Admiralty Prize Court in Bermuda—for Thomas Moore,[29] the Irish patriotic bard and admirer of the leading United Irishmen.

Moore hailed as "the ultimi Romanorum of our country"[30] both Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Tone whom Rawson himself described as "The Irish Lafayette".

Inheriting Donington Hall in Leicestershire from his uncle, Rawdon rebuilt it in 1790–93 in the Gothic style; the architect was William Wilkins the Elder.

Additionally, Pitt's long tenure in office had given him ample opportunity to annoy various political grandees, including but not limited to The Duke of Leeds and Lords Thurlow and Lansdowne.

In mid-May, a combination of these various figures, coupled with a handful of Members of Parliament, proposed to make Rawdon the Prime Minister.

During a debate in the House of Lords on 5 February 1807 over the proposed Slave Trade Act 1807, which would abolish British involvement in the Atlantic slave trade, he publicly supported the bill and stated that "the evidence upon the table of the house must be sufficient to convince their lordships of the necessity of abolishing this sanguinary traffic.

"[42] Being a close associate of the Prince-Regent, Moira was asked by him to form a Whig government after the assassination of Spencer Perceval in 1812 ended that ministry.

Moira's attempts to create a governing coalition failed, but as a mark of the prince's respect, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter in that year.

On 6 December 1816, after the conclusion of the Anglo-Nepalese War (see below), Moira was raised to the rank of Marquess of Hastings together with the subsidiary titles Viscount Loudoun and Earl of Rawdon.

[44] His tenure as Governor-General was a memorable one, overseeing the victory in the Gurkha War (1814–1816); the final conquest of the Marathas in 1818; and the purchase of the island of Singapore in 1819.

[46] Hastings employed Sita Ram, a Bengal draftsman to record his 1814-15 (seventeen month) inspection of British possessions.

[48] After raids by Pindaris in January 1817, Hastings led a force at Hindustan in the North; in the South, the Army of the Deccan, under the command of General Sir Thomas Hislop.

His domestic policy in India was also largely successful, seeing the repair of the Mughul canal system in Delhi in 1820, as well as educational and administrative reforms, and encouraging press freedom.

[49] Rawdon was appointed Governor of Malta in 1824 but died at sea off Naples two years later aboard HMS Revenge, while attempting to return home with his wife.