Richard Guyon

Richard de Beaufré comte de Guyon (1813 – 12 October 1856) was a British-born Hungarian soldier, general in the Hungarian revolutionary army and Turkish pasha (Kurshid Pasha).

Early life

He was born at Walcot, near Bath, Somerset, and descended from a French noble family.

After receiving a military education in England, Guyon fought against Dom Miguel in the Liberal Wars in Portugal.

In 1832 Guyon entered the Austrian service joining the Hungarian Hussars; and on being attached as aide-de-camp to Baron Splényi, married the daughter of that general in 1838.

From that time till the outbreak of the revolution, Guyon led the life of a country gentleman on his estates near Komárom.

Hungarian Revolution

At the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution, Guyon was among the first to offer his services to the national government as an officer of the Royal Hungarian Army, and played a prominent part in the struggle for independence during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

During the retreat of Artúr Görgey's army, Guyon carried the mountain-pass of Branyiszko, and by that daring feat of his re-established the communication with the government at Debrecen, as also with the several other Hungarian army corps.

He won great distinction in the Battle of Pákozd (29 September 1848) and the Battle of Schwechat (30 October) and after the Battle of Kapolna (26 and 27 February 1849) was made a general.

When, in April 1849, the garrison of the besieged Fortress of Komárom was to be apprised of the victorious approach of the national army, Guyon, with a detachment of hussars, cut his way through the enemy's lines, and announced the approaching relief.

In 14 July 1849, Guyon defeated the imperial army led by Josip Jelačić in the Battle of Hegyes, one of the last Hungarian victories of the freedom war, which assured Southern Hungary for the revolutionary army keeping the road open for the leaders of the revolution to escape in the Ottoman Empire.

The bloody Battle of Szőreg (5 August 1849) allowed General Henryk Dembiński, protected by the self-sacrificing ten battalions of Guyon, to retire to Temesvár, where the Battle of Temesvár, the last in the campaign, was fought and lost on 9 August. Guyon escaped to Turkey.

Ottoman Empire

In 1852 Guyon entered the service of the Sultan without being required to change his faith.

Under the name of Kourshid Pasha, he, as a general of division, was Governor of Damascus, and at the beginning of the Crimean war, did much to organise the army of Kars. Guyon died of cholera at Scutari in 1856. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he was "the first Christian to obtain the rank of pasha and a Turkish military command without being obliged to change his religion".

The 1863 Chambers Encyclopaedia states "Indomitable courage, and an incessant care for the comfort of the troops under his command, were the chief features in Guyon's character".