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Sir Frederick Adam

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR FREDERICK ADAM (1781-1853), British general, was the son of the Rt. Hon. W. Adam of Blair-Adam, lord-lieutenant of Kinross-shire. He was gazetted an ensign at the age of fourteen and was subsequently educated at Woolwich. He became captain in 1799, and served with the Coldstream Guards in Egypt (1801). In 1805, having purchased the intermediate steps of promotion, he obtained command of the 21st Foot, with which regiment he served in the Mediterranean from 1805 to 1813, taking part in the battle of Maida in 1806. In 1813 he accompanied the British corps sent to Catalonia, in which he commanded a brigade. He fought a gallant action at Biar (April 12, 1813), and on the following day won further distinction at Castalla. In the action of Ordal, on the 12th of September, Adam received two severe wounds. He returned to England to recover, and was made a major-general in 1814. At Waterloo, Adam's brigade, of which the 52nd under Colborne (see Seaton, Lord) formed part, shared with the Guards the honour of repulsing the Old Guard. For his services he was made a K.C.B., and received also Austrian and Russian orders. During the long peace which followed, Sir Frederick Adam was successively employed at Malta, in the Ionian Islands as lord high commissioner (1824-1831) and from 1832 to 1837 as governor of Madras. He became K.C.M.G. in 1820, G.C.M.G. four years later, lieutenant-general in 1830, a privy councillor in 1831, G.C.B. in 1840, and full general in 1846. He died suddenly on the 17th of August 1853.