William Reid (British Army officer)

Major General Sir William Reid GCMG KCB FRS
Born	1791 Kinglassie, Fife, Scotland
Died	31 October 1858 London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Major General
Battles/wars	Napoleonic Wars
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

Major General Sir William Reid GCMG KCB FRS (1791–1858) was a British soldier, administrator and meteorologist. He was founder of Bermuda National Library.

Born at Kinglassie, Fife and educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Reid was commissioned lieutenant of engineers in 1809, and in 1810 joined Wellington's army at Lisbon. In 1815 he participated in Sir Edward Pakenham's unsuccessful attack on New Orleans and in 1835 commanded a brigade in the British Legion raised by the Queen Regent of Spain. Subsequently Reid served as Governor of the Bermudas (1839–1846), of the British Windward Islands (1846–1848), and of Malta (1851–1858). He was knighted in 1851 and promoted to major general five years later.

Reid was sent to the Leeward Islands in 1831 to direct the task of reconstruction after the Great Barbados hurricane. During his two-and-a-half-year stay he became absorbed in trying to understand the nature of North Atlantic hurricanes, which led to a lifelong study of tropical storms. He published An Attempt to Develop the Law of Storms by Means of Facts (1838; third edition, 1850) and The Progress of the Development of the Law of Storms and of the Variable Winds (1849).

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