Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nelson, Alexander Abercromby
NELSON, Sir ALEXANDER ABERCROMBY (1816–1893), lieutenant-general, born at Walmer, Kent, in 1816, and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was, on 6 March 1835, appointed ensign 40th foot (now 1st batt. South Lancashire), in which regiment his two brothers, and subsequently his son, also served. He became lieutenant on 15 March 1839, and was in sole charge of the commissariat of the Bombay column during the operations under Sir William Nott [q. v.] at Kandahar and in Afghanistan in 1841–2 (medal). He accompanied the Bombay column, under Colonel Stack, which proceeded from Ferozepore to join Sir Charles James Napier [q. v.] in Sind, was present at the battle of Haidarabad, 24 March 1843 (medal), and was thanked by the governor-general of India and the Bombay government for the manner in which the duties of the commissariat were performed. He was aide-de-camp to Sir Thomas Valiant at the battle of Maharajpore, 29 Dec. 1843, and had a horse shot under him (mentioned in despatches and bronze star). On 31 July 1846 he obtained an unattached company. He was appointed adjutant of the Walmer depot battalion, 7 April 1854, but immediately afterwards was made deputy assistant adjutant-general, and subsequently brigade-major, at Portsmouth, which post he held during the period of the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny. He became major unattached 6 June 1856, lieutenant-colonel 9 Dec. 1864, and colonel 9 Dec. 1869. In 1865, when deputy adjutant-general in Jamaica, he was appointed brigadier-general to command the troops at St. Thomas-in-the-East at the time of the insurrection, for his services in suppressing which he received the thanks of government, and was unanimously voted a sum of two hundred guineas for a testimonial by the Jamaica House of Assembly. He was lieutenant-governor of Guernsey from 1870 to 1883, and was a J.P. for Middlesex. Nelson became a major-general in 1880, and a retired lieutenant-general in 1883. He was made C.B. in 1875 and K.C.B. in 1891. He married in 1846 Emma Georgiana, daughter of Robert Hibbert, of Hale Barns, Altrincham, Cheshire. She died in 1892. Nelson died at his residence near Reading on 28 Sept. 1893.
[Army Lists and London Gazette; Debrett's Knightage; Times, 30 Sept. 1893.]