from Sir Thomas Craig and Sir George Mackenzie to Alexander
Nisbet and Thomas Ruddiman. The date of Abercromby's death is
uncertain. It has been variously assigned to 1715, 1716,
1720, and 1726, and it is usually added that he left a widow
in great poverty. The Memoirs of the Abercrombys, commonly
attributed to him, do not appear to have been published.
See Robert Chambers, Eminent Scotsmen, s.v.; William Anderson,
Scottish Nation, s.v.; Alexander Chalmers, Biog. Dict.,
s.v.; George Chalmers, Life of Ruddiman; William Lee, Defoe.
ABERCROMBY, SIR RALPH (1734-1801), British lieutenant-general,
was the eldest son of George Abercromby of Tillibody,
Clackmannanshire, and was born in October 1734. Educated
at Rugby and Edinburgh University, in 1754 he was sent to
Leipzig to study civil law, with a view to his proceeding
to the Scotch bar. On returning from the continent he
expressed a strong preference for the military profession,
and a cornet's commission was accordingly obtained for him
(March 1756) in the 3rd Dragoon Guards. He served with his
regiment in the Seven Years' war, and the opportunity thus
afforded him of studying the methods of the great Frederick
moulded his military character and formed his tactical
ideas. He rose through the intermediate grades to the rank of
lieutenant-colonel of the regiment (1773) and brevet colonel
in 1780, and in 1781 he became colonel of the King's Irish
infantry. When that regiment was disbanded in 1783 he retired upon
half-pay. That up to this time he had scarcely been engaged
in active service was owing mainly to his disapproval of the
policy of the government, and especially to his sympathies with
the American colonists in their struggles for independence;
and his retirement is no doubt to be ascribed to similar
feelings. On leaving the army he for a time took up political
life as member of Parliament for Clackmannanshire. This,
however, proved uncongenial, and, retiring in favour of his
brother, he settled at Edinburgh and devoted himself to the
education of his children. But on France declaring war against
England in 1793, he hastened to resume his professional duties;
and, being esteemed one of the ablest and most intrepid
officers in the whole British forces, he was appointed to the
command of a brigade under the duke of York, for service in
Holland. He commanded the advanced guard in the action at Le
Cateau, and was wounded at Nijmwegen. The duty fell to him of
protecting the British army in its disastrous retreat out of
Holland, in the winter of 1794-1795. In 1795 he received the
honour of a knighthood of the Bath, in acknowledgment of his
services. The same year he was appointed to succeed Sir Charles
Grey, as commander-in-chief of the British forces in the West
Indies. In 1796 Grenada was suddenly attacked and taken by a
detachment of the army under his orders. He afterwards obtained
possession of the settlements of Demerara and Essequibo, in
South America, and of the islands of St Lucia, St Vincent and
Trinidad. He returned in 1797 to Europe, and, in reward for
his important services, was appointed colonel of the regiment
of Scots Greys, entrusted with the governments of the Isle of
Wight, Fort-George and Fort-Augustus, and raised to the rank of
lieutenant-general. He held, in 1797-1798, the chief command
of the forces in Ireland. There he laboured to maintain the
discipline of the army, to suppress the rising rebellion,
and to protect the people from military oppression, with a
care worthy alike of a great general and an enlightened and
beneficent statesman. When he was appointed to the command
in Ireland, an invasion of that country by the French was
confidently anticipated by the English government. He used
his utmost efforts to restore the discipline of an army that
was utterly disorganized; and, as a first step, he anxiously
endeavoured to protect the people by re-establishing the
supremacy of the civil power, and not allowing the military
to be called out, except when it was indispensably necessary
for the enforcement of the law and the maintenance of
order. Finding that he received no adequate support from the
head of the Irish government, and that all his efforts were
opposed and thwarted by those who presided in the councils
of Ireland, he resigned the command. His departure from
Ireland was deeply lamented by the reflecting portion of the
people, and was speedily followed by those disastrous results
which he had anticipated, and which he so ardently desired
and had so wisely endeavoured to prevent. After holding for
a short period the office of commander-in-chief in Scotland,
Sir Ralph, when the enterprise against Holland was resolved
upon in 1799, was again called to command under the duke of
York. The campaign of 1799 ended in disaster, but friend and
foe alike confessed that the most decisive victory could not
have more conspicuously proved the talents of this distinguished
officer. His country applauded the choice when, in 1801, he
was sent with an army to dispossess the French of Egypt. His
experience in Holland and the West Indies particularly fitted
him for this new command, as was proved by his carrying his
army in health, in spirits and with the requisite supplies,
in spite of very great difficulties, to the destined scene of
action. The debarkation of the troops at Aboukir, in
the face of strenuous opposition, is justly ranked among
the most daring and brilliant exploits of the English
army. A battle in the neighbourhood of Alexandria (March
21, 1801) was the sequel of this successful landing, and it
was Abercromby's fate to fall in the moment of victory. He
was struck by a spent ball, which could not be extracted,
and died seven days after the battle. His old friend and
commander the duke of York paid a just tribute to the great
soldier's memory in general orders: ``His steady observance
of discipline, his ever-watchful attention to the health
and wants of his troops, the persevering and unconquerable
spirit which marked his military career, the splendour of
his actions in the field and the heroism of his death, are
worthy the imitation of all who desire, like him, a life of
heroism and a death of glory.'' By a vote of the House of
Commons, a monument was erected in his honour in St Paul's
cathedral. His widow was created Baroness Abercromby of
Tullibody and Aboukir Bay, and a pension of L. 2000 a year
was settled on her and her two successors in the title.
A memoir of the later years of his life (1793-1801) by his
third son, James (who was Speaker of the House of Commons,
1835-1839, and became Lord Dunfermline), was published in
1861. For a shorter account of Sir Ralph Abercromby see
Wilkinson, Twelve British Soldiers (London, 1899).
ABERDARE, HENRY AUSTIN BRUCE, 1ST BARON (1815-1895), English
statesman, was born at Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, on
the 16th of April 1815, the son of John Bruce, a Glamorganshire
landowner. John Bruce's original family name was Knight,
but on coming of age in 1805 he assumed the name of Bruce,
his mother, through whom he inherited the Duffryn estate,
having been the daughter of William Bruce, high sheriff of
Glamorganshire. Henry Austin Bruce was educated at Swansea
grammar school, and in 1837 was called to the bar. Shortly
after he had begun to practise, the discovery of coal beneath
the Duffryn and other Aberdare Valley estates brought the
family great wealth. From 1847 to 1852 he was stipendiary
magistrate for Merthyr Tydvil and Aberdare, resigning the
position in the latter year, when he entered parliament
as Liberal member for Merthyr Tydvil. In 1862 he became
under-secretary for the home department, and in 1869, after
losing his seat at Merthyr Tydvil, but being re-elected
for Renfrewshire, he was made home secretary by W. E.
Gladstone. His tenure of this office was conspicuous for a
reform of the licensing laws, and he was responsible for the
Licensing Act of 1872, which constituted the magistrates the
licensing authority, increased the penalties for misconduct in
public-houses and shortened the number of hours for the sale of
drink. In 1873 he relinquished the home secretaryship, at
Gladstone's request, to become lord president of the council,
and was almost simultaneously raised to the peerage as Baron
Aberdare. The defeat of the Liberal government in the following
year terminated Lord Aberdare's official political life, and
he subsequently devoted himself to social, educational and
economic questions. In 1876 he was elected F.R.S.; from 1878
to 1892 he was president of the Royal Historical Society;
and in 1881 he became president of the Royal Geographical
Society. In 1882 he began a connexion with West Africa which
lasted the rest of his life, by accepting the chairmanship
of the National African Company, formed by Sir George Taubman
Goldie, which in 1886 received a charter under the title of the
Royal Niger Company and in 1899 was taken over by the British
government, its territories being constituted the protectorate of
Nigeria. West African affairs, however, by no means exhausted
Lord Aberdare's energies, and it was principally through his
efforts that a charter was in 1894 obtained for the university
of Wales at Cardiff. Lord Aberdare, who in 1885 was made a
G.C.B., presided over several Royal Commissions at different
times. He died in London on the 25th of February 1895.
His second wite was the daughter of Sir William Napier, the
historian of the Peninsular war, whose Life he edited.
ABERDARE, a market town of Glamorganshire, Wales, situated (as
the name implies) at the confluence of the Dar and Cynon, the
latter being a tributary of the Tain. Pop. of urban district
(1901), 43,365. It is 4 m. S.W. of Merthyr Tydvil, 24 from
Cardiff and 160 from London by rail. It has a station on the
Pontypool and Swansea section of the Great Western railway,
and is also served by the Llwydcoed and Abernant stations
which are on a branch line to Merthyr. The Tain Vale line
(opened 1846) has a terminus in the town. The Glamorgan canal
has also a branch (made in 1811) running from Abercynon to
Aberdare. From being, at the beginning of the 19th century,
a mere village in an agricultural district, the place grew
rapidly in population owing to the abundance of its coal and
iron ore, and the population of the whole parish (which was only
1486 in 1801) increased tenfold during the first half of the
century. Ironworks were established at Llwydcoed and Abernant
in 1799 and 1800 respectively, followed by others at Gadlys
and Aberaman in 1827 and 1847. These have not been worked
since about 1875, and the only metal industries remaining
in the town are an iron foundry or two and a small tinplate
works at Gadlys (established in 1868). Previous to 1836,
most of the coal worked in the parish was consumed locally,
chiefly in the ironworks, but in that year the working of
steam coal for export was begun, pits were sunk in rapid
succession, and the coal trade, which at least since 1875
has been the chief support of the town, soon reached huge
dimensions. There are also several brickworks and breweries.
During the latter half Of the 19th century, considerable
public improvements were effected in the town, making it,
despite its neighbouring collieries, an agreeable place of
residence. Its institutions included a post-graduate
theological college (opened in connexion with the Church
of England in 1892, until 1907, when it was removed to
Llandaff). There is a public park of fifty acres with two small
lakes. Aberdare, with the ecclesiastical parishes of St
