Michael Richards.

About Michael Richards

Brigadier-General Michael Richards was an Anglo-Irish army officer and military engineer who served as Chief Engineer of Great Britain and Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. Born in Ireland in 1673 into an Anglo-Irish family, he was the son of the military engineer Jacob Richards and the grandson of Solomon Richards. The family were Irish Protestants who owned land in County Wexford. His elder brothers Jacob and John both pursued military careers. Richards was commissioned into the English Army in 1692 and served in Flanders in the Nine Years War. He accompanied an expedition to Newfoundland in 1697. Richards played a role in rebuilding the town of St. John's which had been destroyed in a French attack.