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French Officers

MALARTIC, Anne-Joseph-Hippolyte de Maurés, Compte de (1730-1800)

Governor-General of Île de France (Mauritius) [1792-1800].
Professional soldier.
Born: 3 July 1730 at Montauban, France; son of Pierre-Hippolyte-Joseph de Maurés de Malartic, Compte de Montricoux, an officer in the Gardes Francaises, and Antoinette-Charlotte de Savignac. Began his military career in Canada in 1749, with the Regiment de Béarn. He was a commander in Guadelupe in 1769. In 1792, having been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General he was appointed governor of the French settlements east of the Cape of Good Hope, establishing his residence on the Île de France (Mauritius). He fortified the island, provided resources and support for the French navy, and armed a number of corsairs to attack British shipping in the Indian Ocean.

Following the arrival of two envoys from Tipu Sultan at Ile de France on 19 January 1798, who had been brought to the island by the French privateer, François Ripaud (1755-1814), Malartic had a public proclamation put up on 29 January 1798 asking for volunteers to join an expedition to travel to Mysore to assist Tipu in his resistance to British encroachment in South India. Approximately 100 men were recruited, and they left for India on the French frigate La Preneuse on 7 March 1798. The volunteers were under the command of Louis Auguste Chappuis. The consequences for Tipu of this French involvement would be significant and profound: providing Governor-General Richard Wellesley with the pretext he was seeking to invade Mysore, and culminating in the death of Tipu in May 1799.

Commissioned: Sub-Lieutenant (Regiment de la Sarre) 1745; second-lieutenant (Regiment de Bearn) 8 August 1746; Captain (Regiment de Bearn) 1 November 1746; Assistant-Adjutant (Regiment de Béarn) 30 October 1749; half-pay 1760; Major (Regiment Royal-Comtois) April 1763; Colonel (Regiment de Vermandois) 5 June 1763; Brigadier 1770; Major-General 1780; Lieutenant-General 25 January 1792; Commandant-General & Governor-General of Île de France 17 June 1792.

Died: 28 July 1800 at Port-Louis, Île de France (Mauritius).

Sources
Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol IV 1771-1800. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979 pp.530-531; Nouvelle Biographie Generale... Paris: Didot, 1853-1866 Tome 32 ff.1009-1011.