Agnew, Sir Andrew, of Lochnaw, fifth baronet (1687–1771), army officer, was born on 21 December 1687 at Innermessan Castle, Wigtownshire, the eldest son of the twenty-one children of Sir James Agnew, fourth baronet (c.1660–1735), and his wife, Mary (c.1652–1742)...
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Aitchison, Sir John (1789–1875), army officer, was born on 25 April 1789 in Tranent, East Lothian, the third son of William Aitchison (1753–1839) of Drummore, East Lothian, distiller and landowner, and his wife, Jane (1764–1833), eldest daughter of James Mylne (1738/9–1788), poet and tenant farmer, of ...
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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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Stanley Lane-Poole
revised by James Falkner
Baillie, John (1772–1833), army officer in the East India Company and orientalist, younger son of George Baillie of Leys Castle, Inverness, and his wife, Anne (née Baillie), was born at Inverness on 10 May 1772, and entered the East India Company's service in 1790, arriving in ...
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Edward M. Furgol
Baillie, William (d. 1653), army officer, was the son of Sir William Baillie of Lamington, an adherent of Mary, queen of Scots. His mother was a daughter of Sir Alexander Hume, lord provost of Edinburgh, and he was born illegitimate while his father's first wife, ...
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Brendan Carnduff
Baird, Sir David, first baronet (1757–1829), army officer, was born on 26 December 1757 at Newbyth, Haddingtonshire, the fifth son of William Baird (c.1711–1766), merchant, and Alicia, née Johnstone, of Hiltown, Berwick (d. c.1787). Baird's siblings included five sisters, two older, two younger, and one close in age, and two younger brothers. Within years of his birth the family moved to ...
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Balfour, Nisbet (1743–1823), army officer, was born at Dunbog, Fife, the son of Henry Balfour, laird of Dunbog, and his wife, Katherine Porterfield. He and his four brothers all entered the army, as had their father before them. The family expended much of its money on buying commissions; in February 1778 ...
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Edward M. Furgol
Balfour, Sir William (d. 1660), parliamentarian army officer, was the son of Colonel Henry Balfour (d. 1580), a member of the Balfour family of Pitcullo, Fife, and his wife, Christian Cant.
William Balfour followed his father's example by serving the Dutch in the ...
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Ballingall, Sir George (1780–1855), military surgeon and medical writer, was born on 2 May 1780 at Forglen, Banffshire, the son of the Revd Robert Ballingall, and his wife, a daughter of J. Simson of Edinshead. His education began at the Falkland parish school...
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Andrew Grout
Beatson, Alexander (1759–1830), army officer in the East India Company and colonial governor, was born on 24 October 1759 at Dundee. He was the second son of the three sons and one daughter of Robert Beatson (b. 1730), of Kilrie, Fife, and his wife, ...
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Beatson, George Steward (1814–1874), army medical officer, third son of Duncan Beatson of Campbeltown, Argyll, was born at Greenock in May 1814. He graduated in arts and medicine at Glasgow (MD 1836) and became LCS (Edinburgh) in 1836. In 1838 he joined the ...
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Beatson, Robert (1741–1818), writer and army officer, was born at Vicarsgrange, Dysart, Fife, on 25 June 1741, the eldest son of David Beatson (d. 1785) of Vicarsgrange and his wife and cousin, Jean, daughter of Robert Beatson of Kilrie, the descendant of a local laird. His father enjoyed the patronage of the ...
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A. J. Arbuthnot
revised by James Falkner
Bethune, Sir Henry, first baronet and de jure ninth earl of Lindsay (1787–1851), army officer, the eldest child of Major Martin Eccles Lindsay Bethune (d. 1813), commissary-general in Scotland, and his wife, Margaret Augusta (née Tovey), was born at Hilton, near ...
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Blackadder [Blackader], John (1664–1729), army officer, was the fifth son of John Blackadder the elder (1615/1623?–1686) and his wife, Janet Haining (d. 1688), and was born in the parish of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, on 14 September 1664. William Blackadder (1647–1696) and Adam Blackadder (b. 1659, d. in or after 1696)...
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Martin Holt Dotterweich
Borthwick, Sir John (d. 1569), soldier and religious activist, is of obscure origins. He was not, as has been claimed, a son of William, third Lord Borthwick, but became son-in-law of the fourth lord [see Borthwick, William] when he married the latter's youngest daughter, ...
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Boyd, William, fourth earl of Kilmarnock (1705–1746), Jacobite army officer, the son and heir of William Boyd, third earl of Kilmarnock (1683/4–1717), and his wife, Euphemia (b. 1684, d. in or before 1729), daughter of William, eleventh Lord Ross, was born on 12 May 1705 and baptized twelve days later at ...