THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
453 
JOSEPH BROME (1st.) 
At the conclusion of the Seven Years War the popularity of the 
Marquis of Granby, Commander-in-Chief and Lieutenant-General of 
the Ordnance (with whom Lieutenant-Colonel Brome continued as 
A.-D.-C.), was unbounded. Fox despatched special couriers to seduce 
him into political life, and to offer him the choice of the “ Ordnance 33 
or of the “Horse Guards ; 331 and on 1st July, 1763, the Marquis be¬ 
came Master-G-eneral of the Ordnance and Commander-in-Chief, being 
succeeded as Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance by Lord G-eorge 
Townshend. Lord Granby died on 18th October, 1770—his last official 
act having been to give R.A. officers the Sword in lieu of the Fuzee, 
and to authorise the German mode of wearing the Sash, round the 
waist instead of over the right shoulder. 1 2 3 As the whole patronage of 
the Ordnance was vested absolutely in the Master-General, and there 
was no Adjutant-General of Artillery prior to 1795, 3 nor other in¬ 
termediary save the Commandant at Woolwich (Major-General G. 
Williamson), it will be obvious how vast must have been the trust 
reposed in Col. Brome, as Artillery Staff Officer to the Master-General, 
whom even the poisoned arrows of Junius, levelled against Lord 
Granby, failed to wound. 
The period from the peace of 1763 until 1770 was singularly un¬ 
eventful in the history of the Royal Artillery. One battalion, of 10 
companies, was quartered in America (then being inundated by the 
swarms of disbanded troops, with their families, from Europe); another 
battalion was divided between Gibraltar and Minorca; while the third 
remained at home. Reliefs were conducted by whole battalions (until 
the Committee of 1819, presided over by the Duke of Wellington, 
determined the company as the unit for reliefs). In addition to these 
were the artillery Trains in India and with the Expeditions against the 
Havannah and other Spanish possessions in the West Indies : also, a 
separate company of cadets. 4 
It was thus solely due to the Marquis of Granby and to Colonel 
Brome that the reductions in the Royal Artillery on the conclusion of 
the Seven Years War were carried out on a different system from that 
which had hitherto prevailed: field brigades were dismounted, trains 
disbanded, and each company reduced from 107 to 57 men; but the 
cadres of the three battalions, with their companies, were preserved 
intact—ready for expansion on any sudden emergency. 5 The junior 
Lieutenant-Fireworker of each company was retired to half-pay, but 
owing to the preservation of cadres the last Fireworker was re-employed 
in 1767. 
Lord George Townshend—a political attache, without military experi¬ 
ence, and lately Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland—would appear to have 
been an extremely unpopular successor, in October 1770, to the Marquis 
1 “ Memoirs of the Reign of George III.” Vol. I., pp. 145, 370. 
2 “ Cleaveland MSS.,” item 20th April, 1770. 
3 G.O. 27/3/1795. “His Majesty has been pleased to appoint Major Macleod as Deputy- 
Adjutant-General of Artillery.” G.O. 29/10/1795. “His Majesty has been pleased to appoint 
Major Macleod, D.-A.-G. R.A., to be Lieut.-Colonel in the Army.” 
4 “ Kane’s (Artillery) List,” p. 205. 
5 “ History of the Royal Artillery ” (Duncan), Vol. I., p. 241. 
