Field Marshal John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford GCB, GCH, PC (Ire) (1772 – 3 June 1860) was a British Army officer and politician.

[6] Promoted to major-general on 4 June 1813, Byng commanded his brigade at the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813 and then at the Battle of Roncesvalles on 25 July 1813 when his brigade took the brunt of the French assault and held its position for three hours in the early morning before finally being forced back; meanwhile General Lowry Cole rushed up reinforcements in the early afternoon and then fended off the French until the evening when thick fog rolled in.

[11] Byng's stubborn resistance at Roncesvalles allowed the Marquess of Wellington (later the Duke) to consolidate enough troops to defeat the French at the Battle of the Pyrenees over the next few days.

His conduct was such that the Prince Regent told him that he was "permitted to wear over the arms of the family of Byng, in bend sinister, a representation of the colour of the 31st Regiment of Foot," and the following crest of honourable augmentation: "out of a mural crown an arm embowed, grasping the colour of the aforesaid 31st regiment, and pendent from the wrist by a ribband the gold cross presented to him by His Majesty's command, as a mark of His royal approbation of his distinguished services".

[19] At the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, he was absent because he had two horses entered at York races that day, and delegated command to his deputy, who failed to peacefully disperse the large crowd, resulting in 18 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

[23] In recognition of Byng's support for the Reform Bill, the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, raised him to the peerage as Baron Strafford of Harmondsworth on 8 May 1835,[24] which territorial designation recognised the Earldom borne by his maternal ancestors which had become extinct in 1799.

He was promoted to full general on 23 November 1841,[25] and on 28 August 1847 he was raised further in the peerage as Viscount Enfield and Earl of Strafford[26] Also in 1847, following the death of his eldest brother the Whig MP George Byng (1764-1847), he inherited Wrotham Park.