Entered the army in the 17th Light Dragoons on 9 Dec 1795; was Captain in the 27th Light Dragoons; Major, 27th Foot 1803, and in the 86th Foot in 1807; Lieut.-Colonel 84th Foot 1811.
First brought to notice in the Cavalry, as a teacher of a new sword exercise introduced by his brother-in-law, then Major John Gaspard Le Marchant. In 1798 he was present, in the 17th Light Dragoons, at the Battle of Vinegar Hill in Ireland. He served subsequently in India on the staff of his father-in-law, Gen. Sir George Hewitt, who sent him in 1908 to take quiet possession of the Danish Fort of Serampore, fourteen miles north of Calcutta, by which mission he obtained a considerable sum of prize money. When Sir George Hewitt became Commander-in -Chief in Ireland, Lieut.-Colonel Carey was appointed his Military Secretary, which post he held for several years under that General's successor, Sir George Beckwith. He was a Major-General at the age of forty-six years. |