Lieutenant-General William Millar (died 1838), was a British

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

officer during the

French Revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

and

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

Wars; and later he was Colonel Commandant Royal Artillery.

Biography

Millar was the second son of the Scottish philosopher and historian John Millar (1735–1801), He received a direct appointment as 2nd lieutenant Royal Artillery 24 May 1781. His subsequent commissions were: 1st lieutenant 1787, captain lieutenant 1794, captain 1799, major (brevet 1805) 1806, lieutenant-colonel 1806, colonel (brevet 4 June) 14 June 1814, major-general 1831, colonel commandant 1834, lieutenant-general 1837. He served eighteen years in the West Indies, and was present at the capture of most of the French islands during the early part of the revolutionary wars. In 1804, on the rebuilding of Woolwich Arsenal after the great fire of 1802, he was appointed assistant to Colonel Fage in the royal carriage department, and was one of the officers to whose skill and indefatigable exertions during the

Peninsular war The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

the services were indebted for their material. With mechanical resources which, judged by a later standard, were of the most imperfect description, they poured forth a never failing supply of a quality and excellence which were the admiration of other armies, and at the close of the war led to the French commission of Baron Dupin to inquire into the system that could produce such results. Millar was the originator of the 10-inch and 8-inch shell-guns which formed so large a part of British armaments from 1832 until some years after the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. He was among the first to perceive the advantages of shell-guns of large calibre; and as early as 1820, that is to say two years before the publication of

Henri-Joseph Paixhans Henri-Joseph Paixhans (; January 22, 1783, Metz – August 22, 1854, Jouy-aux-Arches) was a French artillery officer of the beginning of the 19th century. Henri-Joseph Paixhans graduated from the École Polytechnique. He fought in the Napoleonic ...

' ''Nouvelle Force Maritime'', brought forward his first 8-inch shell-gun. cites ''Official Catalogue Mus. of Artillery'', p. xxiv. He was appointed inspector-general of artillery in 1827, and director-general of the field-train department in 1833. Millar died from self-inflicted injuries near Hastings, on 14 March 1838. He had previously exhibited symptoms of suicidal mania.

Family

Millar was married and left a grown-up family.

Notes

References

* **Kane's ''Lists Roy. Artillery'', rev. ed., Woolwich, 1869; **''Official Catalogue Museum of Artillery''; **Dupin's ''Voyages dans la Grande-Bretagne''; **Sir Howard Douglas's ''Naval Gunnery''; **''Naval and Military Gazette'', 17 and 24 March 1838. {{DEFAULTSORT:Millar, William 1838 deaths British Army generals Royal Artillery officers Suicides in England Year of birth missing British military personnel who committed suicide