Richard Kane
Richard Kane was an Irish army officer who served as the acting governor of Gibraltar from 1725 to 1727. He also served as the governor of Menorca from 1733 to 1736, having been its lieutenant governor since 1712.
Origins
Richard O'Cahan was born to Thomas O'Cahan and his wife, Margaret Dobbin, at his mother's home in Duneane, County Antrim on 20 December 1662. In 1688, he anglicised his name to Kane and joined a volunteer Protestant regiment in his home town, Carrickfergus, raised to oppose James II's Catholic rule.Nine Years' War and War of the Spanish Succession
Kane was commissioned as a lieutenant into the Antrim Volunteers, a unit of the Army of the North, a force of Williamite Protestants raised to oppose the Irish Army which was loyal to James II. Kane took part in resisting the siege of Derry in 1689. Shortly afterwards, he joined the Earl of Meath's Regiment of Foot and fought in the Williamite War in Ireland. He was present at the Battle of the Boyne and siege of Limerick in 1690.His regiment was singled out in recognition of its bravery during the siege of Namur at which he was wounded. In 1702, William died and the Duke of Marlborough took command of the army. Kane fought under Marlborough in several battles of the War of the Spanish Succession and was severely wounded at the Battle of Blenheim. In December 1710, Queen Anne named him colonel of his own regiment of foot, which was finally disbanded in 1717.
In 1711, Kane sailed to Canada in an unsuccessful expedition under General John Hill to take Quebec from the French. During the expedition, he visited Boston. In the following year, Kane commanded a British force which captured Dunkirk, an occupation that ended disastrously when an epidemic killed half of his men.
Menorca and Gibraltar
In the summer of 1712, Queen Anne signed orders for the Duke of Argyll to proceed to the Spanish island of Menorca as its Governor. Menorca had been captured by the British in 1708 and under the terms of the peace treaty then being negotiated, the island would remain in British hands. Argyll remained titular governor for the next three years, but the work was really for Richard Kane, the lieutenant governor. He arrived 10 November 1712 and remained on the island, apart from a few absences, until his death twenty four years later.In Menorca, against the interference of the Roman Catholic Church and always short of funds, Kane reformed the legal system, drew up a new constitution, built a road connecting the old Spanish capital, Ciudadela, with Mahón, the new capital, and improved trade by making Mahon a free port. He introduced new agricultural methods and imported new varieties of cereal, new breeds of cattle and drought-resistant clover to feed them.
In 1720–1721, he was appointed to take command of the garrison in Gibraltar when it was threatened by Spain and, in 1725, George I ordered Kane to Gibraltar again to strengthen the defences and ward off Spanish invaders. This he did, at the same time recommending a civil government for "the Rock". George I rewarded him in 1725 for his work by giving him the colonelcy of his own regiment. Kane returned to Menorca in February 1727, just before the Spanish launched an unsuccessful siege on Gibraltar.
He was formally appointed Governor of Menorca in 1733 and given the rank of brigadier general in 1735. He was not knighted. Richard Kane died in Mahon on 19 December 1736 after almost twenty five years of devoted service on the island. He was buried in the chapel of St. Philip's Castle which was later bombed by the Spanish. A bust by J. M. Ruysback with a Latin inscription listing his many achievements is in Westminster Abbey. Although an excellent soldier, Kane is best remembered as a colonial administrator devoted to the people in his care.