John Reid (British Army officer)

John Reid (13 February 1721 – 6 February 1807), previously known as John Robertson, was a British army general and founder of the chair of music at the University of Edinburgh.

Born John Robertson, he changed his name from Robertson to Reid (the name given to his paternal ancestor on account of the colour of his red hair) on inheriting the Straloch estate in Perthshire from his father. He was the son of Alexander Robertson of Straloch, whose forefathers had for three centuries been known as the Barons Ruadh, Roy or Red, though the family name had remained Robertson, a tradition not followed by the General. Reid's father, Alexander Robertson, took an active part and incurred heavy losses in resisting the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. He was of the same stock as the Robertsons of Struan, Matilda, the granddaughter of Duncan, third Baron of Struan, having married John 'Reid' Robertson of Straloch, and obtained a charter of the lands of Straloch from James II of Scotland in 1451.

John Reid was born on 13 February 1721, and was educated at Edinburgh University. When Lord Loudoun's regiment of highlanders was raised, after the Battle of Fontenoy, he received a commission in it (8 June 1745) as lieutenant, his name being shown as John Robertson or Reid of Straloch. Subsequently he adopted exclusively the surname of Reid.

He served with the regiment against the Jacobite rebels of 1745, and was with that part of it which captured the troops landed in Tongue Bay from the sloop Hazard on 25 March 1746. These troops, belonging to the French service, but mainly Irish in nationality, numbered about 170, while their captors were only half that strength. The credit of this achievement was claimed by Lord Reay and his sons, one of whom was a captain in Loudoun's regiment: but, in a memorial to Lord Amherst, Reid affirmed many years afterwards, and brought some evidence to show, that it was really due to him. When his superior officers, considering the enemy too strong, had retired, he had persuaded some of the men to remain with him; and at the risk of a court-martial he had persisted in the attacks which at length forced the enemy to surrender. About £12,000 of money was taken, and the loss of this at a time when the Jacobite army was otherwise destitute was, according to Francis Farquharson, who commanded a regiment in that army, 'the chief cause of taking that desperate resolution of engaging the king's army at Culloden'.

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