General Sir Robert Gardiner
(1781-1864)
16 July 1861

Volume 4, page 221, sitting number 4956.

General Sir Robert William Gardiner, K.C.B., was a veteran of the Peninsular War and Waterloo. In 1848 he was appointed the Governor of Gibraltar, a position he held until 1855.

In 1816 he married Caroline Mary Macleod, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir John and Lady Emily Macleod.

Sir Robert William Gardiner, GCB, KCH, 'late of Melbourne Lodge Esher in the County of Surrey and of Gun House St James's Park in the County of Middlesex,'  died on 26 June 1864 at Melbourne Lodge, leaving an estate valued at £18,000. According to his lengthy obituary in the Times (29 June 1864), he was survived by two children: Colonel Lynedoch Gardiner, and Emily, married to Major George Freud.

The Dictionary of National Biography gives a far more succinct summary of his military career than any of his long obituaries. He 'entered royal artillery, 1797; brevet-lieutenant-colonel, 1814; major-general, 1841; general and colonel-commandant, 1853-4; aide-de-camp to Sir John Moore in Sicily, 1806-7, and brigade-major at Coruña, 1809; served in the Peninsula and (1809) Walcheren expedition; prominent at Barossa and Badjoz; commanded field-battery at Salamanca, 1812; commanded E troop royal horse artillery at Waterloo; K.C.B., 1814; governor of Gibraltar, 1848-55; published life of Admiral Sir Graham Moore and valuable professional papers.'

[A Silvy portrait of the sitter's wife, taken on the same day, appears on page 38 of this section.]