Sir Edward Kerrison, 1st Baronet

General Sir Edward Kerrison, 1st Baronet, GCH, KCB (30 July 1776 – 9 March 1853) was a British Army officer and politician.

Kerrison was the only son of Matthias Kerrison (1742–1827), who, from 'an inferior station in life', had accumulated a fortune through trade, and his wife, Mary "née" Barnes; he was born at his father's seat, Hexne Hall, near Bungay, Suffolk, on 30 July 1776. He entered the army as a cornet in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons on 23 June 1796, was promoted to captain in October 1798, and was transferred to the 7th (The Queen's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons that year. With the 7th, he served in the Den Helder expedition of 1799, taking part in the actions of 19 September and 2 and 6 October. He was promoted to major in 1803, and lieutenant colonel in 1805. In October 1808, he embarked with the 7th for Spain, and the following December was severely wounded on the plains of León. He commanded the 7th at the passage of the Oleron, in the action of Sauveterre, and at the battles of Orthez and Toulouse. At the battle of Orthez, the charge headed by Lord Edward Somerset, in which Kerrison with the 7th hussars took the chief part, was highly commended by Wellington. In 1813 he was promoted to brevet colonel.

Kerrison served in the 1815 campaign, and was slightly wounded at Waterloo, where his horse was shot under him; but he continued with his regiment, and took part in the occupation of Paris. He was made a Knight Bachelor on 5 January 1815, appointed a CB on 22 June 1815 and KCH in 1821, and created a baronet by patent dated on 27 July 1821; he was promoted to GCH in 1831 and KCB on 18 July 1840. He was Tory MP for Shaftesbury from 1812 to 1818, for Northampton from 1818 to 1824, and for Eye, which he had purchased, from 1824 to 1852. He voted against the Roman Catholic Relief Bills of 1813, 1816, and 1817. Promoted lieutenant general in 1837, he became a general in 1851.

Kerrison married, on 20 October 1813, Mary Martha (d. 19 April 1860), daughter of Alexander Ellice of Pittencrieff, Fife. They had one son, Edward Clarence Kerrison, later second baronet (1821–1886, at whose death the baronetcy became extinct), and three daughters, the second of whom, Emily Harriet (d. 1873), married in 1834 Philip Stanhope, Viscount Mahon (later 5th Earl Stanhope). Kerrison died at his house, 13 Great Stanhope Street, London, on 9 March 1853.

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