| Administrative History | Major General Sir Alexander Forsyth Reid was born on the 21st August 1846 to the Reverend William Reid, of Auchindoir and Kearn, and Elizabeth Mary Scott. He attended Aberdeen Grammar School and graduated from Aberdeen University with an M.A. and LL.D. Reid began his military career as an ensign in the Indian army, in the Bombay infantry, before transferring to the Bengal Native Infantry as a lieutenant. His service during the Anglo-Afghan war (1878-1880) earned his promotion to captain, and for his role in the forcing of the Peiwar Kota he was brevetted Major. In the North Western Frontier campaign of 1897-1898 he commanded the Malakand Relief column, and is mentioned by the young journalist Winston Churchill in 'The Story of the Malakand Field Force.' He participated in the China expedition in 1900-1901, in which multinational forces under overall British command suppressed the antiforeign Boxer Rebellion, and received a K.C.B. in 1901. He married Alexandra Catherine Dyce Stewart (1863 - 1928) in 1906 and published his first book on the inventor Alexander John Forsyth in 1910. He died at Aboyne in 1913 and is buried at the Old Kirk in Glenbuchat.
Throughout his military service Reid continued to send cultural artifacts back to his brother Robert Reid, Professor of Anatomy at Aberdeen University and founder of the Anthropological Museum. |