Robert Anstruther (British Army officer)
Scottish general (1768-1809)
Brigadier-General Robert Anstruther (3 March 1768 – 14 January 1809), was a Scottish general who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Biography
Early career
Robert Anstruther was the eldest son of Sir Robert Anstruther, 3rd Baronet, and Lady Janet Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Kellie, and was born in 1768. He was educated at Westminster School, but early showed a taste for a military life, and in 1788 his father purchased for him a commission as an ensign, and in 1792 the rank of lieutenant and captain in the 3rd Regiment of Foot ( The Scots Guards). He led the usual life of a young officer in the Guards, but at the same time paid great attention to his military duties. He served with his regiment in the campaigns of 1793 and 1794 in Flanders, and in 1796 was for a short time attached to the Austrian headquarters, but, seeing no further chance of active service in the Guards, he purchased, in March 1797, a majority, and in August of the same year a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 68th Regiment, with which he served in the West Indies, where he attracted the attention of Sir Ralph Abercromby.
Campaigns in Holland and Egypt
In August 1799, hearing that the guards were going on active service, he exchanged into his old regiment as captain and lieutenant-colonel, and served with it in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. In the same year he married Miss Lucy Charlotte Hamilton, the daughter of Colonel Hamilton, of the Coldstream Guards, eldest son of Lord Anne Hamilton and a nephew of the Duke of Hamilton. The next year, though only a lieutenant-colonel, he was selected by Sir Ralph Abercromby to be quartermaster-general of his army in the Mediterranean, at the same time that another young Scotsman, John Hope, who was also to gain fame in Moore's retreat, was nominated adjutant-general. Sir Ralph placed the greatest confidence in Anstruther, and it was mainly on his report, after a visit to the Turkish headquarters, that the Turks would not be ready for a long time, if they could be of any use at all, that Sir Ralph left Marmorice Bay and determined to act alone. Through the whole Egyptian campaign he served with the greatest credit, and was made one of the first knights of the Crescent when the Sultan established that order.
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