View source for William Reid (British Army officer)

{{Short description|British Army general}}
{{For|others with the same or similar names|William Reid (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major General]]
| name             = Sir William Reid
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCMG|KCB|FRS}}
| image         = File:Sir William Reid (1791-1858) by Richard James Lane.png
| image_size    = 304px
| caption       = William Reid<br>Lithograph by [[Richard James Lane]], 1859
| birth_date    = 25 April 1791
| death_date    = {{dda|1858|10|31|1791|4|21|df=yes}}
| placeofburial_label = 
| placeofburial =
| birth_place   = [[Kinglassie]], [[Fife]], [[Scotland]]
| death_place   = [[London]], [[England]]
| placeofburial_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
| nickname      =
| allegiance    = {{UK}}
| branch        = [[Board of Ordnance]]
| serviceyears  = 1809–
| rank          = [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major General]]
| servicenumber = 419
| unit          = [[File:Flag of the Corps of Royal Engineers Camp.svg|23px]] [[Corps of Royal Engineers]]
| commands      = 
| battles       = 
{{tree list}}
* [[Peninsular War]]
* [[War of 1812]]
** [[Battle of New Orleans]]
* [[Bombardment of Algiers (1816)|Bombardment of Algiers]]
* [[First Carlist War]]
{{tree list/end}}
| awards        = [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]<br>[[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
| relations     =
| laterwork     =
}}
[[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major General]] '''Sir William Reid''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCMG|KCB|FRS}} (25 April 1791  – 31 October 1858) was a Scottish military engineer, administrator and [[meteorologist]].<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB |title=Reid, Sir William (1791–1858), army officer and meteorologist  |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-23345 |year=2004 |access-date=23 May 2019 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/23345 }}</ref> He was Governor of the [[Bermuda]]s (1839–1846), of the [[British Windward Islands]] (1846–1848), and of [[Malta]] (1851–1858). Reid founded the [[Bermuda National Library]] in 1839.<ref>[http://www.bnl.bm/about-us/history/ A Brief History, Bermuda National Library]</ref>

==Early life and education==
William Reid was born on 25 April 1791 at [[Kinglassie]], [[Fife]], the fifth child and eldest son of James Reid, minister of the [[Church of Scotland]] at Kinglassie, and his wife, Alexandrina, daughter of Thomas Fyers, chief engineer in Scotland. He was educated at a private school in Musselburgh. In 1806 he was admitted to the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]].<ref name="odnb"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Death of Major General Sir William Reid |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001365/18581106/053/0004 |access-date=23 May 2019 |work=Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette |date=6 November 1858 |page=4|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Military career==
Reid was commissioned in the [[Corps of Royal Engineers]], [[Board of Ordnance]], as no. 419, with the rank of second lieutenant on 10 February 1809, promoted first lieutenant on 23 April 1810,<ref name="Connolly1898">{{cite book |last=Connolly |first=Thomas William John |title=Roll of Officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers from 1660 to 1898 |editor=Richard Fielding Edwards |publisher=The Royal Engineers Institute |location=Chatham |date=1898 |url=https://archive.org/details/roll-of-officers-of-the-corps-of-royal-engineers-r.-f.-edwards/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|18}} whereupon he joined [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Wellington]]'s army at [[Lisbon]]. From 1810 to 1814 he served with the British army in the [[Peninsular War]]. He returned to England in 1814 and was promoted second captain on 20 December. In 1815 he served in the latter stages of the [[War of 1812|Anglo-American War]] including participating in [[Edward Pakenham|Sir Edward Pakenham's]] unsuccessful attack on New Orleans. In 1816 he returned to Woolwich to become adjutant of the [[Royal Sappers and Miners]] and in the same year he accompanied the expedition against [[Algiers]] under [[Lord Exmouth]].<ref name="odnb"/> From 1819 to 1824 he was on half pay. Between 1824 and 1827 Reid served with the [[Ordnance Survey]] in Ireland then without employment until on 28 January 1829 he was promoted regimental first captain and sent to [[Exeter]] to quell the reform riots.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Reid was in the [[Leeward Islands]] in 1831 to direct the task of reconstruction after the [[Great Barbados hurricane]] and in Barbados saw at firsthand the destructive power of storms. He became interested in hurricanes, which were at the time a matter of intense scientific controversy.<ref name="odnb"/> During his two-and-a-half-year stay he became absorbed in trying to understand the nature of [[North Atlantic hurricane]]s, which led to a lifelong study of tropical storms.  In 1835 Reid commanded a brigade in the [[British Legion (1835)|British Legion]] raised by the [[Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies|Queen Regent of Spain]]. In 1837 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel and was stationed from then until 1839 in Portsmouth. In England, Reid presented scientific ideas he had developed with [[William Charles Redfield|William Redfield]] studying storm data before the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 1838 to great acclaim. In the same year Reid published his "An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts". For this he was appointed [[Companion of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath|Companion of the Order of the Bath]] in 1838 and was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] in 1839. Reid published a second book in 1849, "Progress of the Development of the Law of Storms", and in that year became vice-president of the Royal Society.<ref name="odnb"/> He was promoted colonel on 11 November 1851 and major-general 30 May 1856.<ref name="Connolly1898"/>{{rp|18}}<gallery>
File:Reid-1.jpg|Reid's ''An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts'' (1846)
File:Reid-3.jpg|Title page to ''An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts'' (1846)
File:Reid-7.jpg|First page to ''An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts'' (1846)
File:Reid-2.jpg|Figure from ''An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts'' (1846)
</gallery>

==Administrator==
From 1839 to 1846 Reid was civil [[Governor of Bermuda|Governor]] and military Commander-in-Chief of the [[Imperial fortress]] of [[Bermuda]], then Governor-in-Chief of the [[British Windward Islands]] (1846–1848), and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial fortress of [[Malta]] (1851–1858). He returned to England to become Commanding Royal Engineer at [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich|Woolwich]], and in 1850–51 chaired the executive committee of the [[Great Exhibition]], being awarded [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]] in recognition of his chairmanship in 1851.<ref name="odnb"/>

Reid was a member of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] and of learned societies of many countries. He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in February 1839.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=3&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27Reid%27%29|title = Library and Archive Catalogue|publisher=The Royal Society|access-date=4 October 2010}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Reid is now chiefly remembered for his contribution to the intense debate on storms which dominated meteorology in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is also remembered as a successful governor, genuinely concerned with the well-being of those he was sent to govern.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/the-good-governor/|title=The Good Governor|date=5 April 2018|access-date=2019-06-24}}</ref>

==Personal life==
On 5 November 1818 at Clapham, Surrey, Reid married Sarah, youngest daughter of John Bolland, hop merchant and [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Bletchingley (UK Parliament constituency)]], Surrey. They had five daughters.

==Death==
Reid returned to England from Malta in 1858. He died aged 67 after a short illness at his home, 117 [[Gloucester Terrace]], Hyde Park, London on 31 October 1858.<ref name="times">"Deaths." ''The Times'' [London, England] 2 November 1858: 1. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 23 June 2013.</ref> His wife had died on 19 February 1858. Their five daughters survived them.<ref name="odnb"/>

==Family==
His daughter, Grace Reid, married Basil Simouth de Ros Hall, son of [[Basil Hall]].

His daughter Charlotte Cuyler Reid married General [[Neville Bowles Chamberlain|Sir Neville Chamberlain]].<ref name="odnb"/>

His daughter Sophia Reid married Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Hallewell, the son of [[Edmund Gilling Hallewell]] MP.<ref name="walford">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=psgIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA280 |title=The county families of the United Kingdom |first=Edward |last=Walford |year=1882 |publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn=9785871943618 |access-date=19 May 2015}}</ref>

== Published works ==
* ''An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts (1838 1st ed. 1841 2nd ed. 1850 3rd ed.)''
* ''The Progress of the Development of the Law of Storms (1849)''
==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Reid, Sir William}}
*{{NIE}}
*[http://365project.org/jpgiorgio/365/2011-05-18 Mount Carmel Hospital Main Gate]
* [https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/governor-reid-and-the-law-of-storms/ The Bermudian]
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Reid, William (1791-1858)}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-bef|before=Sir R. S. Chapman}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Governor of Bermuda]]
| years = 1839–1846}}
{{s-aft|after=W. N. Hutchinson}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Sir [[Charles Edward Grey]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands]] 
| years = 1846–1848}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William MacBean George Colebrooke]]}}
|-
{{succession box|title=[[List of Governors of Malta|Governor of Malta]]|
before=[[Richard More O'Ferrall]]|
after=[[John Le Marchant (British Army officer, born 1803)|Sir John Le Marchant]]|
years=1851–1858}}
{{end}}
{{Governors of Malta}}
{{FRS 1839}}

{{Governors of Barbados|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, William}}
[[Category:1791 births]]
[[Category:1858 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Kinglassie]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:British Army major generals]]
[[Category:British science writers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the War of 1812]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:British meteorologists]]
[[Category:Governors of Bermuda]]
[[Category:Governors of the Windward Islands]]
[[Category:Governors and governors-general of Malta]]
[[Category:British Auxiliary Legion personnel]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]