Frederick Adam

General Sir Frederick Adam GCB GCMG
Frederick Adam as painted by William Salter, 1848 or after
Born	1784 Scotland
Died	1853
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain  United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army, Artillery
Years of service	1795-?
Rank	General
Commands held	3rd (Light) Brigade
Battles/wars	Peninsular War: Battles of Castalla, Alicante, Biar, Ordal War of the Seventh Coalition: Waterloo
Relations	father: William Adam (MP)
Other work	Lord High Commissioner, Ionian Islands Governor of Madras

General Sir Frederick Adam GCB GCMG (17 June 1784 – 17 August 1853) was a Scottish major-general at the Battle of Waterloo, in command of the 3rd (Light) Brigade. He was the fourth son of William Adam of Blair Adam and his wife Eleanora, the daughter of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone.

At the age of fourteen in 1795, Frederick Adam entered the British Army. He trained at the artillery school at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. In the same year he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and in 1796 he was promoted to second lieutenant.

He took part in the campaigns in the Netherlands and Egypt under Sir Ralph Abercromby, he was promoted to the rank of major in 1803 and a lieutenant colonel in 1804. From 1806 to 1811 he was stationed on Sicily. Between 1812 and 1813 he was in Spain fighting in the Peninsular War, where he was severely wounded at Alicante. On 12 April 1813, while commanding the Light Brigade in John Murray's expeditionary force, Adam led a brilliant rearguard action against the corps of Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet at Biar. The following day, his 2/27th Foot battalion inflicted 350 casualties on Suchet's 121st Line Regiment during the Battle of Castalla. He was wounded again in an action at Ordal on 13 September 1813.

On 18 June 1815, Adam commanded the 3rd British Brigade in Henry Clinton's 2nd Division at the Battle of Waterloo. At the crisis of the battle, Adam's 1/52nd (Light) Foot performed a left-wheel to enfilade the flank of the French Imperial Guard's main attack while the British Guards engaged the head of the column. Under fire from two directions, the French guardsmen put up a brief resistance then fled. After their unsuccessful attack on the British centre, the Guard rallied to their reserves of three (some sources say four) regiments, just south of La Haye Sainte for a last stand against the British. But a charge from Adam's brigade threw them into a state of confusion and those which were left retreated towards La Belle Alliance. It was during this stand that Colonel Hugh Halkett took the surrender of General Cambronne.