COOTE, Sir Eyre (1726-1783), a celebrated general, born at Limerick in 1726, was the son of a clergyman. He served against the Pretender in 1745, and in 1754 sailed for India to join the army of Clive. In 1760, having attained the rank of colonel for his services at Plassy and Calcutta, he was sent to the Carnatic, where he took Wandewash and defeated Lally. For these exploits he received on his return to England a jewelled sword from the East India Company, and a vote of thanks from the House of Commons. In 1769 he was appointed to the chief command in Madras; but in the next year, having quarrelled with the governor, he returned to England. He was made Knight of the Bath, colonel of the 7th Foot, and governor of Fort St George. In 1780 he returned to Calcutta as commander-in-chief in Bengal and member of the supreme council. Soon after he was sent by Warren Hastings into the Carnatic, where Hyder Ali was seriously threatening the British possessions; and on the 1st July 1781 he won a decided victory at Ponto Novo, which checked the advance of his antagonist. But there was a serious deficiency of supplies, and in the next year Coote returned to Calcutta. Notwithstanding his feeble health, he again set sail in the spring of 1783 for Madras. His ship was pursued by the French; and this annoyance, acting upon his broken constitution and now extremely irritable temper, brought on a third fit of apoplexy, causing his death on the 26th April 1783. A monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

A very flattering account of Coote is given by Wilks in his Historical Sketches of Mysore, 1810; see also Mill’s British India.