Robert Melvill

Robert Melvill FRSE FRS FSA(Scot) FSA (also spelt Melville) (12 October 1723 – 29 August 1809) was a Scottish soldier, botanist and inventor. He served as a general in the British Army and was a prominent antiquary.

Melvill invented (1759) the Carronade, a cast iron ordnance. He founded the St. Vincent Botanic Garden, in the West Indies.

Melville was born in Monimail in Scotland, the son of Andrew Melville, a clergyman, and Helen Whytt, sister of Dr. Robert Whytt. As a member of the noble Melville family, he was related to the Earls of Leven and Earls of Melville. He was educated at the grammar school in Leven, and attended Glasgow University (at the same time as Adam Smith) but left to study medicine at Edinburgh University.

He left his studies a second time and joined the 25th Foot (originally raised by David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven in 1689, and later known as the King's Own Scottish Borderers) as an Ensign in 1744 in Flanders, and fought that year at the Battle of Fontenoy, where 1/3 of the regiment was killed. After the Battle of Ath, he returned with the regiment to Scotland to put down the Jacobite rebellion in 1745, and was besieged by the Jacobites in Blair Castle before fighting at the Battle of Culloden. He continued the war in Flanders at the battles of Roucoux and Lauffeld. He was a Lieutenant by 1748, and was promoted to Captain in 1751.

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