John Hart DunneK.C.B. (1835–1924) was a British soldier of Irish descent, who served in several major campaigns of the nineteenth century.[1]
John Hart Dunne was born in Cartrun,
County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1835.
In 1852, Dunne was commissioned into the 62nd Regiment of the British Army. Two years later he was transferred to the 21st Regiment. He served in the Crimean War where he saw action at the battles of
Alma,
Balaclava and
Inkerman and at the
Siege of Sevastopol.[citation needed]
In 1855 he was promoted to
captain and served in the
99th Regiment of Foot in India. It was with this unit that he participated in the notorious
Second Opium War with China in 1860. As part of the plunder gained during the ransacking of the
Summer Palace, five lapdogs were seized. In April 1861, Captain Dunne gifted one of these dogs,
Looty, to Queen Victoria for the Royal Collection of dogs. Dunne thus became credited with the introduction of
Pekinese dogs into Britain. A picture of Looty was painted for the Queen by
Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl. Dunne also received a replica of the picture.[2][3][4][5]
On a wreath of the colours on a mount Vert a newt passant Or in front of an oak tree Proper pendent from a branch on the dexter side thereof by a riband of the second an escutcheon Azure charged with an eagle as in the arms.
Escutcheon
Azure an eagle displayed Or a bordure invected of the last charged with eight trefoils slipped of the field.
Motto
Mullaher
References
^Wright, Richard (2018) Tale of ‘colourful’ General is retold at museum’s new military exhibition, Sidmouth Herald, 5 July
^Dunne, John Hart. 1861. From Calcutta to Pekin, being notes taken from the journal of an officer between those places, by J.H. Dunne. London: S. Low, Son and Co.
^"No. 26482". The London Gazette. 6 February 1894. p. 764.