Career
His family came from Saint Brides House, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Major-General Laugharne, Parliament"s commander in south Wales during the First Civil War, sided with the insurgents and took command of the rebel army. In 1648 he was wounded in battle.
After surrendering to Oliver Cromwell"s army Laugharne was sent to London.
In April 1649 he was court-martialled and condemned to be executed by firing squad along with two other rebels. lieutenant was ruled that the sentence would be carried out on only one of them, to be decided by drawing lots, and Colonel John Poyer was executed at Covent Garden on 24 April.
Laugharne spent most of the 1650s in prison. After the Restoration he was elected Member of Parliament for Pembroke in the Cavalier Parliament (1661–1679).
He died in London. His portrait is to be found in the National Portrait Gallery of England.
This image, entitled "Major General Rowland Laugharne", is almost identical to a portrait entitled "Colonel Langhorne" that is owned by descendants of the Reverend John Langhorne, Langhorne being an anglicised version of Laugharne.
