DICTIONARY
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NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
SUPPLEMENT
ABBOTT, AUGUSTUS (1804–1867), major-general royal (late Bengal) artillery, eldest of five sons of Henry Alexius Abbott of Blackheath, Kent, a retired Calcutta merchant, and of his wife Margaret, daughter of William Welsh of Edinburgh, N.B., writer to the signet, and granddaughter of Captain Gascoyne, a direct descendant of Sir William Gascoigne (1350–1419) [q.v.], was born in London on 7 Jan. 1804. He was elder brother of Sir Frederick Abbott [q. v. Suppl.] and of Sir James Abbott [q.v. Suppl.]
The fourth brother, Saunders Alexius Abbott (d. 1894), was a major-general in the Bengal army. He received the medal and clasp for the battles of Mudki and Firozshah, where he distinguished himself and was severely wounded. He served with distinction in civil government appointments in the Punjab and Oude, and after his retirement in 1863 was agent at Lahore for the Sind, Punjab, and Delhi railway, and afterwards on the board of direction at home. He died at Brighton on 7 Feb. 1894.
The youngest brother, Keith Edward Abbott (d. 1873), was consul-general at Tabriz in Persia, and afterwards at Odessa, where he died in 1873. He had received the order of the Lion and the Sun from the shah of Persia.
Educated at Warfield, Berkshire, under Dr. Faithfull, and at Winchester College, Augustus passed through the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe, and went to India, receiving a commission as second lieutenant in the Bengal artillery on 16 April 1819. His further commissions were dated: first lieutenant 7 Aug. 1821, brevet captain 16 April 1834, captain 10 May 1835, brevet major 4 Oct. 1842, major 3 July 1845, lieutenant-colonel 16 June 1848, colonel 14 Nov. 1858, colonel-commandant Bengal artillery 18 June 1858, and major-general 30 Dec. 1859.
Abbott’s first service in the field was at the fort of Bakhara in Malwa, in December 1822. In the siege of Bhartpur in December 1825 and January 1826 he commanded a battery of two eighteen-pounder guns, built on the counterscarp of the ditch at the north angle, which he held for three weeks without relief. He was commended by Lord Combermere, and received the medal and prize money. On 11 Oct. 1827 he was appointed adjutant of the Karnal division of artillery. In 1833–4 he served against the forts of Shekawati, returning to Karnal.
On 6 Aug. 1838 Abbott was given the command of a camel battery, and joined the army of the Indus under Sir John (afterwards Lord) Keane for the invasion of Afghanistan. He commanded his battery throughout the march by the Bolan pass to Kandahar, at the assault and capture of Ghazni on 23 July 1839, and at the occupation of Kabul on 7 Aug. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 30 Oct. 1839), and received the medal for Ghazni, and, from the shah Shuja, the third class of the order of the Durani empire. The camels of his battery having given out were replaced by galloways of the country, and he accompanied Lieutenant-colonel Orchard, C.B., to the attack of Pashut, fifty miles to the north-
