He is noted for leading a campaign against the Turks in present-day Serbia, where a combined Russian and Serb army defeated the Ottoman Empire at Varvarin in 1810.

The O'Rourke family were originally members of the Jacobite Irish Nobility; they fled Ireland after the defeat by the Protestant Williamites at the Battle of the Boyne in 1691.

The family members were descendants of ninth-century kings of Connacht and ruled the ancient kingdom of Breifne in the northwest of the country until they were unseated during the Elizabethan conquest in the sixteenth century.

During the reign of Elizabeth in Russia in the eighteenth century, one branch of the O'Rourkes moved to Livonia, a province of the Russian Empire at the time.

[3] After Napoleon invaded Russia and reached Moscow, O'Rourke took part in the defense and defeat of the French at Leipzig, and he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

One son, Michael O'Rourke, entered the marine corps as a cadet and achieved distinction in the Navy in the 15th complement, becoming a lieutenant by 1849.