ABERCROMBY, SIR RALPH (1734-1801), British sol dier, eldest son of George Abercromby, of Tullibody, Clack mannanshire, was born Oct. 7, 1734. Educated at Rugby and at Edinburgh University, he was sent in 1754 to Leipzig to study civil law, with a view to his proceeding to the Scottish bar. But he received a commission in the 3rd Dragoon Guards in March 1756. He served with his regiment in the Seven Years' War, and study of the methods of the great Frederick moulded his military character and formed his tactical ideas. In 1781 he became colonel of the King's Irish infantry. When that regiment was disbanded in 1783, he retired upon half pay. Hitherto he had scarcely been engaged in active service, mainly because of his disapproval of the policy of the Government, and especially because of his sympathies with the American colonists in their struggles for independence; and his retirement was no doubt the result of similar feelings. But on the declaration of war by France against England in 1793, he returned to the Army, and was appointed to the command of a brigade under the Duke of York, for service in Holland. He commanded the advanced guard in the action at Le Cateau, and was wounded at Nijm wegen. The duty fell to him of protecting the British Army in its disastrous retreat out of Holland in the winter of In 1795 he received a knighthood of the Bath, and in the same year he was appointed to succeed Sir Charles Grey as commander in-chief of the British forces in the West Indies. In 1796 he seized Grenada, and then took the settlements of Demerara and Essequibo, and the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad. He held, in 1797-98, the chief command of the forces in Ireland. He sought to restore the discipline of the army, and declined to allow the military to be called out, except when it was indis pensable for the maintenance of order. Finding that all his ef forts were thwarted by the Government in Ireland, he resigned the command. After acting as commander-in-chief in Scotland, Sir Ralph was second-in-command to the Duke of York in the second disastrous expedition to Holland in 1797. In 1801 he was sent with an Army to turn the French out of Egypt. The disembarkation on March 2 of the troops at Aboukir Bay, in the face of strenuous opposition, is justly ranked among the most daring and brilliant exploits of the British Army. The French made a surprise attack on the British camp near Alex andria (March 21, 1801), and Abercromby fell in the moment of victory. He was struck by a spent ball, which could not be extracted, and died on board the flagship seven days after the battle. By a vote of the House of Commons, a monument was erected in his honour in St. Paul's Cathedral. His widow was created Baroness Abercromby of Tullibody and Aboukir Bay, and a pension of £2,000 a year was settled on her and her two successors in the title.