Ralph Abercromby (7 October 1734 – 28 March 1801) was a Lieutenant-General of the British Army and briefly commander-in-chief, Ireland in 1798, succeeding Henry Luttrell and preceding Gerard Lake. Abercromby served in the Seven Years' War, Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the French Revolutionary Wars, and he was killed in the Egypt Campaign of Napoleon in 1801.
Biography[]
Ralph Abercromby was born on 7 October 1734 in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, and in 1754 he began to study law at Leipzig University after having an education in Rugby and Edinburgh; he joined a Freemasons lodge in Canongate Kilwinning. Abercromby was commissioned as a cornet in the 3rd Dragoon Guards in March 1756, and he studied the methods of Frederick the Great while serving in the Seven Years' War, during which he fought at the Battle of Minden. In 1773, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, rising to Colonel in 1781; he missed out on the American Revolutionary War, while his brother Robert Abercromby fought in North America during that war - Ralph was a strong supporter of the colonial cause, so he decided to be stationed in Ireland to avoid having to fight against the colonists.
French Revolutionary Wars[]
Abercromby's death
In 1793, Abercromby returned to active duty when the First French Republic declared war on Great Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars, and in 1795 he became a Knight of the Bath for his services in the campaign in Flanders. In April 1797, he led a failed attack on San Juan, Puerto Rico against Spain, and he later returned to Europe, where he was made Governor of the Isle of Wight. In 1798, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the British Army and crushed the Irish Rebellion of 1798 by the United Irishmen. In 1799, Abercromby served under Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany in the failed Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, and in 1801 he led another naval expedition at the head of a British army sent to repel the French expeditionary force of Napoleon Bonaparte from Egypt. On 21 March 1801, he was mortally wounded at the battle of Alexandria while fighting against two French dragoons, and he died on the third rate HMS Foudroyant.