Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Boyd KB (c. 1710 – 13 May 1794) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer.

Life

Boyd was baptized on 20 April 1710 at

Richmond, Surrey Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Comm ...

and attended the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

before entering the army in his father Ninian's profession of civilian storekeeper.Robert Boyd at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> In 1756 he served at the Siege of Minorca, and attempted to reach Admiral

John Byng Admiral John Byng (baptised 29 October 1704 – 14 March 1757) was a British Royal Navy officer who was court-martialled and executed by firing squad. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen, he participated at the Battle of Cape Pass ...

's fleet in an open boat with a message from the besieged garrison commander, William Blakeney. Boyd was a witness at the subsequent court-martial at which Byng was tried for the loss of the garrison. He subsequently became commissary general to the

Marquess of Granby A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

in Germany (1758 to 1759); he then rose through the officer ranks to be three-times

Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of the governor is to act as the ...

(1776 to 1777, 1790 and 1790 to 1794). Boyd considered that his and General Sir William Green's work on the King's Bastion in Gibraltar was so important that he asked to be buried there. The site of his burial is not indicated but his body is lost under cement used to strengthen the building still further in the 19th century. A memorial stone was placed within the

King's Chapel King's Chapel is an American independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed ...

but the marble stone in the King's Bastion read:

Within the walls of this bastion are deposited the mortal remains of the late General Sir Robert Boyd, K.B., governor of this fortress, who died on 13 May 1794, aged 84 years. By him the first stone of the bastion was laid in 1773, and under his supervision it was completed, when, on that occasion, in his address to the troops, he expressed a wish to see it resist the combined efforts of France and Spain, which wish was accomplished on 13 Sept. 1782, when, by the fire of this bastion, the flotilla expressly designed for the capture of this fortress were utterly destroyed.

References

External links

Parliamentary Archives, Papers of General Sir Robert Boyd, Governor of Gibraltar
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Robert 1710 births 1794 deaths Grenadier Guards officers Governors of Gibraltar Alumni of the University of Glasgow People from Richmond, London British Army personnel of the Seven Years' War Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath British Army lieutenant generals