Robert Gordon Gilmour

{{Short description|British army officer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}

Brigadier-General Sir Robert Gilmour, 1st Baronet, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|CB|DSO|CVO|JP|DL}} (27 February 1857 – 24 June 1939), born Robert Wolrige Gordon (he changed his name in 1887), was a British army officer and Captain of the Royal Company of Archers.

Biography

Robert Gilmour née Wolrige-Gordon was the eldest son of Henry Perkins Wolrige (1831-1906) and his wife Anne Gordon, 18th of Hallhead and 7th of Esslemont (1827-1874). His father who added his wife's surname of Gordon by deed poll was a barrister in law by profession and a younger son of Col. John Wolrige (1780-1849) of the Royal Marines who belonged to the old Wolryche Family of Dudmaston. His mother, Anne Gordon, was a Scottish noblewoman and heiress, she was the only child of Maj. Robert Gordon, 17th of Hallhead and 5th of Esslemont (1790-1828). The Gordons of Hallhead are a cadet branch of the Clan Gordon.

Gilmour joined the British Army when he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 25 January 1878. He served in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1881, and served in the Sudanese campaign 1884–85. Promotion to captain followed on 23 July 1890, and to major on 25 August 1896.Hart′s Army list, 1903 He served in the 2nd Battalion of the regiment in South Africa during the Second Boer War 1900–1902. For his service in the war, he received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 29 November 1900,{{London Gazette|issue=27359|date=27 September 1901|page=6310}} and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the October 1902 South African honours list.{{London Gazette |issue=27490|date=31 October 1902 |page=6900}}

Following his return to the United Kingdom, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 28 October 1902,{{London Gazette|date=28 October 1902| issue=27488|page=6805}} and appointed in command of the 2nd battalion, Grenadier Guards.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=23 October 1902 |page=5 |issue=36906}} He served as Gentleman Usher of the Green Rod (Order of the Thistle) from 1917 until his death. He was also a JP and DL.{{London Gazette|date=12 September 1939|issue=15636|page=769|city=e}}

He was later a Captain of the Royal Company of Archers, and was on 29 July 1926 created a Baronet, of Liberton and Craigmillar in the County of Midlothian.{{cn|date=December 2022}}

From 1897 to 1938, he served as a member of the ruling council of the influential Edinburgh conservationist group the Cockburn Association.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/history/office-bearers/|title = Historic Cockburn Association Office-Bearers}}

He lived in Inch House a large 17th-century house on the south side of Edinburgh.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1911-12.

He was born Robert Wolrige Gordon in 1857 and added the surname Gilmour on succeeding to the estates of his great uncle, Walter James Little Gilmour of Craigmillar

(1807-1887).

Family

Gilmour married on 19 October 1889 Lady Susan Lygon (24 May 1870 – 28 January 1962), 2nd daughter of the 6th Earl of Beauchamp. They had four children:

=Lady Susan Gilmour=

Lady Susan Gilmour (24 May 1870 – 28 January 1962) was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1936 for services in connection with the Queen's Institute of District Nursing in Scotland. She died in 1962, aged 91.

References