456 
THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
inconveniences which I have remarked, and could he remedied in the manner I 
have now suggested. 1 —I have, &c. 
(Sd.) Jos. Brome, 
Maj.-Genl., Commandant.” 
His Grace The Duke op Richmond, 
Master-General, 
and the Rt. Hon. and Hon. the 
Principal Officers of H.M. Ordnance. 
This was approved by the Board, and carried oat at once. 
The year 1779 was a trying time for the Commandant at Woolwich 
(Genl. Belford, of Culloden fame), and his second in command (Colonel 
Brome, who had been Belford 5 s adjutant at Culloden), in quelling the 
riots of the sailors, in February, and the rising of the convicts in the 
Warren—when the anarchists of the period threatened to burn the 
Warren, release the convicts, and destroy the national ordnance. 
General Belford died from the prostration caused by his exertions, on 
horseback, to defend the Arsenal and the convict establishment. 2 
In 1782, Major-General Brome was in harness, as President of a 
General Court-Martial, and of successive committees on (a.) ordnance 
and carriages; ( b .) relative precedence for command, &c. of regimental 
Captains versus brevet Majors; (c.) baggage fund scales to officers for 
active service. 
In 1783, when temporarily commanding the garrison at Woolwich, 
General Brome 5 s hand signed the order for abolishing the grade of 
Matross, whose origin, functions, and history have been detailed in 
Chapter I. (footnote). The accompanying representation of a field- 
day, circa 1770, taken from a painting on metal in R.A. Institution, 
gives us the last glimpse of the combination of infantry guard, gunners, 
and matrosses. 
By the Board of Ordnance records we find that he had personally 
arranged and embarked the several Trains and Equipments for {ct.) the 
great siege of Gibraltar; (b.) the war of American Independence; (c.) 
against Spain, and (d.) for the Army under H.R.H. the Duke of York 
against the French Republic : and in 1790, 1792, and, for a third time, 
in 1793, Lieutenant-General Brome was Commandant of Woolwich 
garrison. 
* * * * * 
On the 24th April, 1796, this extraordinary man and distinguished 
gunner yielded up his spirit, at Shooters 5 Hill—aged 84 years—thus 
finishing a career unexampled in the history of the army. General 
Brome lies buried within the entrance of the church of St. Nicholas, 
known as Old Plumstead Church. 55 
j/. 
1 By a singular irony of fate, in 1893, when a great-grandson of General Brome’s visited Wool* 
wich for the first time, in proceeding from the Record office to the Commandant’s house, the 
Barrack Field happened to he closed against the public—on account of the drought ; and the sentry 
unwittingly warned him off the grass ! 
2 “ Records of Woolwich” (Vincent), Vol. II., p. 387. “ England’s Artillerymen,” p. 16. 
