James Abbott (British army officer)

Sir James Abbott
James Abbott in Afghan dress. (B. Baldwin, 1841)
Born	(1807-03-12)12 March 1807 Kent, England
Died	6 October 1896(1896-10-06) (aged 89) Isle of Wight, England
Buried at	Guildford Cemetery, Guildford, Surrey, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Indian Army
Rank	General
Unit	Bengal Artillery
Battles/wars	First Anglo-Sikh War Second Anglo-Sikh War
Awards	KCB
Relations	Major General Augustus Abbott Major General Sir Frederick Abbott Major General Saunders Alexius Abbott Keith Edward Abbott
Other work	Colonial administrator

General Sir James Abbott, KCB (12 March 1807 – 6 October 1896), was a British army officer and administrator in colonial India.The Pakistani city of Abbottabad was founded by and named after him.

James Abbott was the 3rd son of Henry Alexius Abbott, a retired Calcutta merchant of Blackheath, Kent, and his wife Margaret Welsh, the daughter of William Welsh of Edinburgh. Abbott was educated at a school in Eliot place, Blackheath and at the East India Company Military Seminary in Addiscombe, Surrey.

A number of his siblings would achieve distinction, notably Augustus Abbott, Sir Frederick Abbott, Saunders Alexius Abbott and Keith Edward Abbott.

He was commissioned as a cadet in the Bengal Artillery at the age of sixteen, arriving in India in 1823. He first saw action at the Siege of Bharatpur under the command of his older brother Augustus. In 1827 he was promoted to Lieutenant and made adjutant to the Sirhind division of artillery. During this period he saw little action, and between 1835-1836 was assigned to the revenue surveys in Gorakhpur and later Bareilly. In June 1838 he was promoted to brevit Captain.

In November 1838, Abbott served in the army of Sir John Keane, who had been tasked with supporting Shuja Shah Durrani in his bid to wrest power from Dost Mohammad Khan in Afghanistan. The British had been eager to secure Afghanistan, the gateway to India, in light of increasing Russian influence in the central Asia.