Now over eighty years old, this ended his military career, and he retired to his home in County Limerick, where he died in September 1761 and later buried in Westminster Abbey.

[1] In 1692, he joined his uncle George Blakeney in Flanders; serving as a volunteer, he was wounded at the Namur on 31 August 1695 during the attack on the Terra Nova earthwork which allegedly inspired the song 'The British Grenadiers'.

[7] Blakeney's regiment escaped disbandment after the 1713 Peace of Utrecht; when his uncle retired from the 31st Foot in 1718, he assigned his commission as lieutenant colonel to his nephew.

[1] When trade disputes with Spain led to the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, Blakeney was appointed brigadier general in the expeditionary force sent to reinforce Admiral Vernon.

[11] Blakeney was appointed lieutenant governor of Stirling Castle, an immensely strong position controlling access between the Scottish Highlands and the Lowlands.

Despite victory at Falkirk Muir on 1 February, the Jacobites lifted the siege and withdrew to Inverness when Prince William, Duke of Cumberland began advancing north from Edinburgh.

[17] Tyrawley's absence was symptomatic of general neglect; in 1757, a Parliamentary committee noted the poor state of its defences, with crumbling walls and rotten gun platforms.

In addition to Tyrawley, over 35 senior officers were absent from their posts, including the governor of Fort St Philip, and the colonels of all four regiments in its garrison.

[20] The heavy drinking that left Blakeney with "a paralytick disorder" and "nervous tremors", was portrayed as the virtues of a simple soldier, but many considered his surrender premature.

[21] Although rewarded by being appointed to the Order of the Bath and made 'Baron Blakeney' in the Irish peerage, delirium tremens left him barely able to write his name, and this ended his military career.

After Culloden, he was invited to demonstrate 'firings and evolutions of my own design' but in 1748, a new standard infantry drill manual was issued and Blakeney dropped his suggestions.