He was born Lovell Benjamin Badcock, the eldest son of Thomas Stanhope Badcock of Little Missenden Abbey, Buckinghamshire and Maplethorpe Hall, Lincolnshire.
[1] Educated at Eton, Badcock commenced his distinguished military career in the Royal Bucks Militia.
He fought under General Auchmuty at Montevideo in 1807 and went through the Peninsula War with the 14th Light Dragoons until 1813, being awarded the Peninsular Medal with eleven clasps, a greater number than was given to any other officer of cavalry.
There is no known familial relationship between Lovell Benjamin Badcock and another prominent nineteenth century British Army general bearing the same surname - General Sir Alexander Robert Badcock.
MacKay, in hussar uniform, hangs in Calke Abbey, Derbyshire.