Robert Abercromby of Airthrey
General Sir Robert Abercromby, GCB (21 October 1740 – 3 November 1827) was a British Army officer, politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Bombay from 1790 to 1792. He also sat in the British House of Commons representing the constituency of Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire from 1798 to 1802. The youngest brother of Sir Ralph Abercromby, he fought in the American War of Independence before serving in India as part of the Bombay Army, where he eventually rose to the rank of Commander-in-Chief, India.[1]
General Sir Robert Abercromby | |
|---|---|
 Robert Abercromby painted in 1788 by George Romney | |
| Born | 21 October 1740 |
| Died | 3 November 1827 (aged 87) Airthrey |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service | British Army |
| Rank | General |
| Commands | Bombay Army Indian Army |
| Battles / wars | French and Indian War American Revolutionary War Third Anglo-Mysore War |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath |
Military career
editAbercromby served in the French and Indian War, and was promoted captain in 1761. On 30 Nov. 1775, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 37th Regiment of Foot. During the American Revolutionary War, he fought at the Battle of Long Island, the Battle of Brandywine, the Battle of Germantown, the Battle of Crooked Billet, the Battle of Monmouth and at the sieges of Charleston and Yorktown, where he commanded the left wing of the British forces.[2]
After the war, he was made Colonel for life of the 75th (Highland) Regiment, a regiment newly raised to deter the French in India. Abercromby served in India from 1790 to 1797, where he was Governor of Bombay and Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army and then, from 1793, Commander-in-Chief, India.[3]
In 1798 he purchased Airthrey Castle from the Haldane family and was thereafter entitled Abercromby of Aithrey.[4]
He was promoted lieutenant-general in 1797, elected M.P. for the county of Clackmannan in the place of his brother Ralph in 1798, and was made governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1801—a post he held until his death—and a general in 1802. His increasing blindness - arising from an eye disease contracted before his return from India in 1797 - made it impossible for him ever again to take active service, and obliged him to resign his seat in parliament in 1802.[5]
References
edit- ^ "Sir Robert Abercromby letter". The New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts. 22 February 1999. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ "Abercromby, Sir Robert". Encyclopedia.com.
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ "Airthrey Castle". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ Robert Abercromby History of Parliament Online article.