Douglas, Sir Howard

Douglas, Sir Howard, 1776–1861, British general and colonial administrator. He was a distinguished teacher of military strategy and an important authority on military and naval engineering. After a command in Canada (1795–99), he served intermittently as commandant of the senior department of the Royal Military College and as inspector general of instructions there; in the meantime he participated (1809–12) in the Peninsular War. While governor of New Brunswick (1823–31) he secured a charter for King's College at Fredericton (later the Univ. of New Brunswick) and attempted to settle the Maine boundary dispute with the United States. He was (1835–40) high commissioner of the Ionian Islands, where he introduced a code of laws modeled on a Greek code. He served in Parliament as a Conservative from 1842 to 1847. Douglas's many technical works include treatises on naval gunnery, steam navigation, armor plating, land fortifications, national defense, and naval maneuvers.