Abbott, Sir James (1807–1896), army officer, third son of Henry Alexius Abbott of Blackheath, Kent, a retired Calcutta merchant, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of William Welsh, writer to the signet, of Edinburgh, was born on 12 March 1807. He was the brother of ...
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Robert Steele
revised by K. D. Watson
Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus, first baronet (1827–1902), chemist and explosives expert, was born on 17 July 1827 at Woolwich, the eldest son of Johann Leopold Abel (1795–1871), a music master in Kennington, and his wife, Louisa (d. 1864), daughter of Martin Hopkins...
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Paul David Nelson
Abercromby, James (1706–1781), army officer and politician, was born in Glassaugh, Banffshire, the son of Alexander Abercromby (1677–1728), laird of Glassaugh, politician and army officer, and his wife, Helen Meldrum. With his father's assistance he became commissioner of supply and justice of the peace in ...
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Abercromby, Sir Ralph, of Tullibody (1734–1801), army officer, was born in October 1734 at Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, and baptized on 26 October at Logie, Perthshire. He was the second but eldest surviving son of George Abercromby (1705–1800), a lawyer by training and a descendant of the ...
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Acton, Sir John Francis Edward, sixth baronet (1736–1811), naval officer and administrator in the Neapolitan service, descended from the Actons of Aldenham Hall, Shropshire, was born in Besançon, Franche Comté, France, in 1736 (baptized 3 June). His father, Dr Edward Acton (1709–1775), had settled there and married a local girl, ...
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Adams, James Williams (1839–1903), army chaplain, born on 24 November 1839 in Cork, was the only son of James O'Brien Adams, magistrate of Cork (d. 1854), and his wife, Elizabeth Williams. Educated at Hamlin and Porter's School, on the South Mall, Cork...
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J. K. Laughton
revised by Andrew Lambert
Adams, John [alias Alexander Smith] (1768
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Adye, Sir John Miller (1819–1900), army officer, was born at Sevenoaks, Kent, on 1 November 1819, the son of Major James Pattison Adye, Royal Artillery, and Jane, daughter of J. Mortimer Kelson of Sevenoaks. His grandfather Major Stephen Payne Adye, Royal Artillery, had three sons in the regiment. ...
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John Sweetman
Airey, Richard, Baron Airey (1803–1881), army officer, was born at Newcastle upon Tyne in April 1803, the eldest son from the six boys and three girls of Lieutenant-General Sir George Airey (1761–1833) and his wife, Catherine Talbot (d. 1852), third daughter of ...
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Matthew Brown
Alexander, Alexander (b. 1781/2), soldier and writer, was born in Dundonald, Ayrshire, the illegitimate son of a wealthy Scottish merchant. Almost everything known about him comes from his remarkable autobiography, published in Edinburgh in 1830. After what he recalled as an unhappy childhood marred by physical violence, at the age of eighteen he was sent to work as an overseer on slave plantations in ...
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David Hunt
revised
Alexander, Harold Rupert Leofric George, first Earl Alexander of Tunis (1891–1969), army officer, was born in London on 10 December 1891, the third son of James Alexander, fourth earl of Caledon (1846–1898) and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Graham-Toler (d. 1939), daughter of the ...
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John Van der Kiste
Alfred, Prince, duke of Edinburgh (1844–1900), duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, naval officer, and son of Queen Victoria, was born Alfred Ernest Albert at Windsor Castle on 6 August 1844, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. An extroverted child, his capacity for learning delighted his parents. They feared that the comparative academic weakness of his elder brother ...
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Alison, Sir Archibald, second baronet (1826–1907), army officer, was born at Edinburgh on 21 January 1826, the eldest son of Sir Archibald Alison, first baronet (1792–1867), historian, and his wife, Elizabeth Glencairn (1799–1873), youngest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel William Tytler. In 1835 Possil House...
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Matthew Hughes
Allenby, Edmund Henry Hynman, first Viscount Allenby of Megiddo (1861–1936), army officer, was born on 23 April 1861, St George's day, on the estate of his mother's family at Brackenhurst Hall, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire, the second child and eldest son of six children (three boys, three girls) of ...
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Allin, Sir Thomas, first baronet (bap. 1612, d. 1685), naval officer, was born at Lowestoft and baptized there on 8 November 1612, the younger son of Robert Allin (d. 1613) and his wife, Alice. Many of his family were seamen. Thomas may perhaps be identified with the ...
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William C. Lowe
Amherst, Jeffrey, first Baron Amherst (1717–1797), army officer, was born on 29 January 1717 at Brooks Place, Riverhead, Kent, the second son of Jeffrey Amherst (d. 1750) and his wife, Elizabeth (d. 1751), daughter of Thomas Kerrill of Hadlow, Kent. John Amherst...
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Anderson, Louisa Garrett (1873–1943), surgeon and suffragette, was born at the house of her paternal uncle, 9 Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead, London, on 28 July 1873, the eldest of the three children and the only surviving daughter of James George Skelton Anderson (1838–1907), shipowner, and his wife, the pioneering physician ...
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Anderson, Sir Robert (1841–1918), spymaster, detective chief, and author, was born on 29 May 1841 in Mountjoy Square, Dublin, the third son of Matthew Anderson (1804–1888), crown solicitor, Dublin, and his wife, Mary née Lee. The second son, Sir Samuel Lee Anderson (...
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Brian Holden Reid
Anderson, Sir (Warren) Hastings (1872–1930), army officer, was born at the barracks, Aldershot, on 9 January 1872, the eldest son of Lieutenant-General David Anderson, governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst (1886–8), and temporary commander of the Aldershot garrison, and his wife, Charlotte Christina...
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André, John (1750–1780), army officer and spy, was born in London on 2 May 1750, the eldest son of Anthony André (1717–1769), a Genevese merchant settled in the city, and Marie Louise Girardot (1721?–1813). He had at least one brother and sister. He was educated at home and possibly at ...
