What is John Graves Simcoe?
{{no sources|date=April 2025}} '''John Graves ''' Simcoe was a [[British]] [[General]] and [[politician]]. ==Family== Simcoe's father John Simcoe died of [[pneumonia]] just before the [[Battle]] of [[Quebec]] during the [[Seven Years War]] while serving in the [[Royal Navy]]. To honour his late father, John Graves Simcoe enlisted as an [[Ensign (rank)|Ensign]] in the [[British Army]]. ==Military service== He was then sent to [[Boston]] in the 1770s at the beginning of the [[American Revolution]]. He fought for the [[British Empire]] against the Rebels during the [[Siege]] of [[Boston]]. He was [[promoted]] to captain and fought for the Empire in [[Pennsylvania]] in the [[Battle of Brandywine]]. Rumor has it that at Brandywine Simcoe commanded his men not to shoot at a number of fleeing rebels one of whom was [[George Washington]]. Simcoe wanted to raise a Black [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] regiment made entirely of freed [[slave]]s. Instead, he was asked to replace [[Robert Rogers (British Army Officer)|Robert Rogers]] as the commander of the [[Queen's Rangers]]. As Lieutenant-Colonel and Commander of the Queen's Rangers he was in several important battles of the [[Revolutionary War]]. Simcoe was captured by the [[France|French]] and later freed. Simcoe also tried to expose Washington's [[Culper spy ring]]. Simcoe was shot in the [[Battle of Yorktown]] and sent back to [[England]] where he wrote a [[history]] of the revolutionary war from a British perspective. ==Politics== Simcoe got married to Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim and he was elected to the [[House of Commons]] as a supporter of [[Prime Minister]] [[William Pitt the Younger]]. He supported banning the [[slave trade]] and having [[Warren Hastings]] removed from his position as Governor of [[India]]. He voted in favor of the [[Constitutional Act of 1791]] which split [[Quebec]] into two provinces called [[Upper Canada]] and [[Lower Canada]]. He offered to lead the [[British]] in their [[war]] with [[Spain]] but instead he was named [[Lieu