414 
THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
Marlborough,” 1 2 the Royal Artillery had well nigh exhausted its avail¬ 
able supply of officers, men, and equipment. General Borgard was 
now very aged (88), and, though nominal Commandant at Woolwich, 
was no longer consulted by the War Office 3 ; the Surveyor-General of 
Ordnance (Armstrong) was a confirmed invalid; the R.A. Lieut.- 
Colonel (Jonas Watson) and the senior Major of the Corps (Jonathan 
Lewis) had been despatched in command of the expedition to the Spanish 
West Indies—in which Colonel Watson was killed, in action on 26th 
March 3 —and Major Thomas Pattison, now become the Lieut.-Colonel, 
and virtual Commandant of the Corps (who had commanded in Minorca 
during so many years), was left at Woolwich with only four companies 
(one composed of recruits), and the field train of four 6-prs., twelve 
3-prs., eight lj-prs., and six Royal mortars (5J-in. and 4|-in.), 4 with 
which to prepare for the approaching war in Europe ! 
The Duke of Montagu, then Master-General of the Ordnance, and 
Lieut.-Colonel Pattison, were at this time, consequently, the pillars of 
the regimental Hercules—for the Lieut.-General of the Ordnance, 
Field Marshal Wade, was in Hanover, in command of the Anglo- 
Hanoverian forces. 
In this emergency the Royal Military Academy was founded by the 
Duke of Montagu, under Royal Warrant of 30th April, 1741—not for 
the “ instruction of young gentlemen,” as erroneously stated in first 
para, of the “ Records of the Royal (Military) Academy,” and in the 
“ Cleaveland MSS.” p. 225—but, as judiciously pointed out by Colonel 
Duncan, M.B., in the “History of the Royal Artillery” (Yol. I., p. 
108), for all grades of the corps scheduled in the “ Rules ” appended 
to the Royal Warrant. 5 To provide, however, for immediate practical 
requirements in officers, Colonel Pattison's first steps were to recall to 
his right hand, from Minorca, Lieutenant Charles Brome, as his acting 
Adjutant, and to procure from the Master-General a commission as 
Lieutenant-Fireworker, for Bombardier Joseph Brome (1st February, 
1 “ History of the Eoyal Artillery,” Vol. I., p. 123. 
2 General Borgard was the last artillery officer who wore body armour, which is depicted in an 
excellent portrait in It.A. Institution. “ Borgard was born in Norway, a subject of the King of 
Denmark, and came to England in a ship of his father’s with a cargo of timber ; but having a 
turn for military life he went upon the Continent (at 16 years of age), and was in most foreign 
services, particularly the Emperor’s (or Austrian), and served against the Turks, and was in a 
prodigious number of battles and sieges before he came into the British service.” Old MSS. of 
Colonel Desagulier’s. His first commission was conferred by Eoyal Warrant dated 1693. He 
died on 7th February, 1751. 
s “Cleaveland MSS.” p.226. “Colonel Watson was killed by a round shot, which glanced 
from a tree at some distance from the battery and struck him on the thigh.”— London Magazine, 
1744, pp. 76, 77. 
4 “ History of the Eoyal Artillery,” Vol. 1., p. 103. 
5 The first para, of the “ Eecords of the Eoyal Military Academy ” contains another error. 
The f 1 practical school,” founded (by Borgard) in 1719, admitted civilian cadets, not from a 
seminary at Charlton, but from Mr. Bracken’s “ great academy at Greenwich, cf which Paley 
was an Assistant-Master .''—Vide “ Memoirs of Wm. Paley, D.D.,” by Meadley, 1818 Ed., p. 
38. 
By MSS. of Colonel Commandant Thos. Ord (commissioned in December, 1741), “the Eoyal 
Academy was established in 1741 as a school for the men in general, but in the year 1748 it was 
attended by the cadets only.” The Eoyal (Military) Academy Avas de facto a regimental institu¬ 
tion,to which civilians had entree ; but the regiment “ despised its birthright,” and consequently 
forfeited the attendant “ blessings ” (commissions, and staff employ) : it would be beyond the 
scope of the present Memoirs to trace the processes by which the original character of the Eoyal 
Military Academy became diverted to the present limited usefulness of this Institution. 
