William Drummond Stewart

Sir William Drummond Stewart, Bt
Portrait of Sir William Drummond Stewart in Murthly Castle
Born	26 December 1795 Murthly Castle, Perthshire
Died	28 April 1871 (aged 75)
Buried	Chapel of St. Anthony the Eremite, Murthly Castle
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1812–20
Rank	Captain
Unit	6th Dragoon Guards 15th The King's Hussars
Battles/wars	Peninsular War Waterloo
Awards	Knight of the Military Order of Christ

Sir William Drummond Stewart, 7th Baronet (26 December 1795 – 28 April 1871) was a Scottish adventurer and British military officer. He travelled extensively in the American West for nearly seven years in the 1830s. In 1837 he took along the American artist, Alfred Jacob Miller, hiring him to do sketches of the trip. Many of his completed oil paintings of American Indian life and the Rocky Mountains originally hung in Murthly Castle, though they have now been dispersed to a number of private and public collections.

After his older brother John Stewart died childless in 1838, William inherited the baronetcy and returned to Scotland. In 1842 he returned to America, and in the summer of 1843 hosted a private rendezvous-style party at a remote lake in the Rockies (now called Fremont Lake). On that trip Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was hired to care for the mules. The so-called "pleasure trip" ended in a dispute that split the party and caused Stewart to return to Scotland earlier than he had planned. Stewart has recently been portrayed for adding a homosexual dimension to the frontier.

Born at Murthly Castle, Perthshire, Scotland, Stewart was the second son and one of seven children of Sir George Stewart, 17th Laird of Grandtully, 5th Baronet of Murthly and of Blair. The family decided that William would go into the Army (as his older brother would inherit his father's estate and title). After his seventeenth birthday in 1812, William asked his father to buy him a cornetcy in the 6th Dragoon Guards. After his appointment was confirmed on 15 April 1813 he immediately joined his regiment and began a programme of rigorous training.

Stewart was anxious to participate in military action; on 22 December 1813 his father purchased for him an appointment to a Lieutenancy in the 15th King's Hussars, which was already in action during the Peninsula Campaign. The appointment was confirmed on 6 January 1814 and Stewart joined his regiment, subsequently seeing combat during the Waterloo campaign in 1815. On 15 June 1820 Stewart was promoted to a Captain and soon thereafter retired on half pay.