Church, Sir Richard (1784–1873), soldier and philhellene, was born 23 February 1784 in Cork city, fourth among seven children of Matthew Church, a quaker merchant from Cork, and Anne Church (née Dearman), originally of Darlington, Co. Durham, England. After he ran away from school to become a soldier his father purchased him an ensigncy in the 13th Light Infantry (July 1800). He fought in the Egyptian campaign under Sir Ralph Abercromby (qv), during which he gained a strong dislike of Ottoman rule. While on garrison duty in Malta he was promoted lieutenant in the 37th regiment (January 1803) and captain of the Corsican Rangers (January 1806). A courageous and aggressive soldier, he distinguished himself in the defence of Capri and was seriously wounded commanding the small British force that seized the Ionian islands of Zante, Cerigo, and Ithaca (1809–10). On Zante he raised two regiments of Greek infantry in British pay. Popular with his Greek troops, he in turn admired their fighting spirit and became increasingly sympathetic to the cause of Greek independence. He pleaded their case in London in 1812 and at the congress of Vienna (1814–15). However, the British government failed to champion Greek independence and at the request of the Turks disbanded its Greek regiments (1815). In 1813 Church was appointed British military resident with the Austrian armies in Italy and served under Count Lavall Nugent (qv), fighting with distinction in his Italian campaigns, especially against Murat's army (1815). For his efforts in Italy he was decorated by the Bourbon king of Naples and made CB. Still eager for active service after the end of the war, he became (1816) a general in the Neapolitan army, charged with suppressing political secret societies and banditry, which he did with great severity. He was appointed commander-in-chief in Sicily but after the anti-Bourbon rebellion of 1820, he was expelled from Sicily and imprisoned for six months in Naples. Released after a trial, he attempted to join the Greek rebellion in 1821 but was prevented by financial and diplomatic obstacles. He returned to England (1822) to be made KCH.
In reponse to a desperate summons he arrived in Greece in March 1827, where an English naval officer described him as ‘certainly a fine fellow, but a complete Irishman, with their great virtues and little faults’ (Church, 311). An assembly at Damala elected him commander-in-chief of the Greek armies, but he failed to relieve the Acropolis in June 1827. Although hampered by intrigues between rival philhellenes and Greek politicians, he carried on the fight in western Greece, winning a series of victories (1828–9) and entering Missolonghi (June 1829). However he argued bitterly with several Greek and foreign commanders and in August 1829 he resigned in protest at the failure of the Greek president-elect John Capodistrias to support his campaign. When Capodistrias sought to limit the Greek kingdom to the Morea, Church published an influential pamphlet in London advocating that the new state should include the liberated provinces of western Greece, which came about in May 1832. After the war of independence he resided in Athens and became a Greek citizen, and was usually in the thick of Greek politics. In 1835 he became confidential adviser to Sir Edmund Lyons, first British ambassador to Greece. He was appointed a member of the council of state in 1836, inspector general of the army and the national guard, and military governor of Rumeli. A liberal and a constitutionalist, he was opposed to the autocratic rule of King Otho and played an important part in the revolution of 1843 by which Greece became a constitutional monarchy. In 1843 he was appointed a senator, and in 1854 he returned to the Greek army as a general at the request of the king. He still maintained a strong loyalty to Britain and acted as unofficial ambassador in Athens, corresponding with Palmerston and Gladstone on Anglo–Greek affairs. He died 20 March 1873 in Athens, and was buried there. Known as the ‘Great Liberator’, he was honoured with a state funeral and a public monument.
He married (17 August 1826) Elizabeth Augusta, daughter of Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, of Osmaston, Derbyshire, under-secretary for the colonies in Canning's ministry; she joined him in Athens in the early years of Greek independence but fell seriously ill and had to return permanently to England.