Hew Dalrymple Ross

Field Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, GCB GCTE (1779–1868) was Master Gunner, St James's Park, the most senior Ceremonial Post in the Royal Artillery after the Sovereign.

Military career
Hew Dalrymple Ross entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1793, and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1795.

With the Royal Horse Artillery he saw active service during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and in 1806 he was promoted captain and appointed to command a troop of the R.H.A. (afterwards famous as the Chestnut Troop).

In 1809 the troop landed at Lisbon and at once set out to join Wellington's army, reaching the front two days after Talavera. Ross' guns were attached to the Light Division, and, with Robert Craufurd, took part in the actions on the Côa and the Buçaco. When André Masséna began his famous retreat from the Lines of Torres Vedras, Ross' troop was among the foremost in the pursuit; at Redinha and Pombal, at Sabugal and Fuentes d'Onor, the Chestnuts earned great distinction, and in December 1811 their commander received a brevet-majority for his services.

He was present at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, at the Salamanca forts and the battle of Salamanca, still attached to the Light Division. In the campaign of Vittoria, Ross' guns were continually with the most advanced troops, and after Vittoria they captured the only piece of artillery that remained to the defeated French. A further brevet-promotion and a good service reward came to Ross for his part in the campaign.

At Vera in the Pyrenees Ross' troop was one of the three which played a decisive part in the action, and Vera remains a classical example of the action of horse artillery. A troop was engaged at St. Pierre and Orthez, and at the conclusion of peace returned to England. It was engaged at Waterloo, and though half its guns were disabled the remainder took part in the pursuit of the French.

Ross received the Army Gold Cross with two clasps for Busaco, Salamanca, Badajoz, Vitoria, Nivelle, and Nive; the Military General Service Medal with three clasps for Fuentes d'Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, and the Pyrenees; the Waterloo Medal; the K.C.B.; the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword and the Russian St. Anne. He had commanded the troop for nineteen years when he at last received a regimental lieutenant-colonelcy in 1825. As officer commanding Royal Artillery in the Northern District, with delegated command over all the forces of the four northern counties, Sir Hew Ross had for nearly sixteen years to deal with continually threatened civil disorder, and bore himself as well as on the field of battle. From 1840 to 1858, when he retired, he practically directed, in one post or another, all the artillery services of the British army, and when in 1854 the test of war came, the artillery took the field in a far better condition than the rest of Lord Raglan's army. Much of the present efficiency of the Royal Regiment is directly traceable to the influence of Sir Hew Ross, to whom it owes the institution of the School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness and the establishment of the Royal Artillery Institution at Woolwich. Promoted to Major-general in 1841 and lieutenant-general in 1851, he became general in 1854, and died, a field-marshal and G.C.B., in 1868.