Dirom-4-202 colours tweaked to simulate cleaning

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Alexander Dirom of

Luce Luce may refer to: People * Luce (name), as a given name and a surname * Luce (singer) Places * Luče, a town in Slovenia * Luce, Minnesota, an unincorporated community * Luce Bay, a large Bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland * Luce ...

and Mount Annan FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(21May 17576October 1830) was a British military commander who saw overseas service in

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He is remembered not only as a military commander but also as an agricultural improver, which earned him Fellowship of both the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

and the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His most notable contribution was to identify the importance of salt in animal diets, leading to the widespread use of "salt-licks" from around 1800. His views on the British corn trade also paved the way to the formulation of the

Corn Laws The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. The la ...

in the early 19th century.

Biography

He was born in

Banffshire Banffshire (; ; ) is a historic county in Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. The historic county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975. Since 1996 the area has been spli ...

the son of Alexander Dirom of Muiresk (Provost of Banff) and his wife, Ann Fotheringham. He was appointed

ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

in the 61st Regiment of Foot on 8 December 1778 and lieutenant in the 88th Foot 13 October 1779. He served with the regiment in Barbados (1780) and Jamaica (1780–84) as Military Secretary to the GoC and Major of Brigade. He exchanged into the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot, later the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, as a captain in 1781 and in 1783 went to St Domingo to negotiate an exchange of prisoners of war. In 1784 he returned to England. He was aide-de-camp to Major General Sir

Archibald Campbell Archibald Campbell may refer to: Peerage * Archibald Campbell of Lochawe (died before 1394), Scottish peer * Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll (died 1513), Lord Chancellor of Scotland * Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll (c. 1507–1558) ...

(Gov. Gen. and Commander in Chief at Madras) and subsequently served in India against Tippoo Sahib in the

Third Mysore War The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Confederacy, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four ...

. In 1795 he was elected a Fellow

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and in 1796 a Fellow of the

. His proposers for the latter were

Henry Mackenzie Henry Mackenzie FRSE (August 1745 – 14 January 1831, born and died in Edinburgh) was a Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer sometimes seen as the Addison of the North. While remembered mostly as an author, his main income came from legal ro ...

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

, and James Finlayson. He died in Annan on 6October 1830.

Publications

*Narrative of the Campaign in India (1794) *An Inquiry into the Corn Laws and Corn Trade of Great Britain (1796) *Plans for the Defence of Great Britain and Ireland (1797) *On the Rev Robert Rennie's Plan for an Inland Village *Descriptions of the Limekilns built in 1801 *On Experiments with Salt as Manure and in the Feeding of Livestock *Remarks on Free Trade and the State of the British Empire (1827)

Family

He was brother of Sophia Dirom who married Captain

George Duff Captain George Duff (c. 1 February 1764 – 21 October 1805) was a Scottish officer in the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, who was killed by a cannonball at the Battle ...

RN (killed at the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

). Dirom married the wealthy Magdalen Passley (1772–1853) of Mount Annan in

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the hi ...

, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 3 August 1793 and thereafter adopted the title Dirom of Mount Annan. They had 12 recorded children including sons: Lt John Pasley Dirom, Sophia Dirom, Captain Alexander Dirom, Robert Dirom, Andrew Dirom, William Maxwell Dirom, Francis Moira Dirom and Admiral James Dirom. Their daughter, Leonora Anne Dirom, married Rev William Muir

(1787–1869). Other daughters included Magdalen Jemima Dirom and Sophia Dirom.

Artistic recognition

There is a "school of Raeburn" 3/4 length portrait, supposedly of him, which has Dirom's face painted onto an ensign in the red uniform of a regiment to which Dirom never belonged.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dirom, Alexander British Army lieutenant generals 1757 births 1830 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society People from Banff, Aberdeenshire King's Royal Rifle Corps officers British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Mysore War