WILLIAM GARDINER, G.C.B., K.C.H. 
IX 
principal equerry, retaining this appointment until his Royal Highness accepted the 
throne of Belgium in 1831, after which Sir Robert continued to reside at Melbourne, 
on the Claremont estate. He was military aide-de-camp to George IV., William 
IV., and to her Majesty until he attained general’s rank in 1841. In 1848 Sir 
Robert Gardiner was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar, 
and his public service terminated with that appointment in 1855. He became a 
Regimental Lieut.-Colonel 80th December, 1828; a Brevet Colonel 22nd July, 
1880; Colonel 24th November, 1839; a Colonel Commandant 22nd March, 
1853 ; a Major-General 23rd November, 1841; a Lieut.-General 11th November, 
1851; and a General 28th November, 1854. 
Sir Robert landed at Gibraltar in February, 1849, and his government of this 
important fortress was eminent for the broad and high principled views he 
always took of the onerous duty entrusted to him. Regarding Gibraltar as a 
first class English fortress, he deprecated the breach of the Treaty of Utrecht, 
in making its harbour a thorn in the side of a friendly nation as a smuggling 
depot. In all other respects he would never consent to render the military, subor¬ 
dinate to commercial, interests, and this in the question of Quarantine produced 
serious complications. It had been customary to bow to the venal and absurd 
laws of Spain on this point, in order to keep open our communication with the 
neighbouring country. This he thought an undignified and unbefitting position 
for England, and the necessity of communicating with ships carrying troops to the 
Crimea (these vessels being considered in quarantine by Spanish law because there 
were a few cases of cholera in England!) gave him an opportunity of making a stand. 
Both these questions, however, embroiled him with the mercantile community. 
Sir Robert’s hospitality during his command was unbounded, and those who 
served under him could not fail to observe that whilst, guided by an ever zealous 
sense of duty combined with untiring pluck and energy, his ruling motive was to do 
thorough justice to his work, he never failed to bring prominently forward that the 
governor of Gibraltar was a Gunner. He never wore any uniform but blue, and 
even after his return from Gibraltar attended court in a regimental tunic as Colonel 
Commandant of the 4th Brigade. The same spirit showed itself about his honors, 
orders, &c.; he cared little for them personally, but valued them as bringing credit 
to the Corps, and whenever distinction befell any member of it, he always showed 
the same feeling of gratification. 
He had become Colonel Commandant of the 4th Battalion, Royal Artillery, in 
1853, and was advanced to the Grand Cross of the Bath in 1855. In April, 1864, 
he was appointed Colonel-Commandant of the ‘ B * Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery. 
He received the order of the Guelph for his services in Hanover, and the Russian 
Order of St Anne for Waterloo. When at Gibraltar Her Majesty the Queen of 
Spain sent him the Grand Cross of Carlos III., but the regulations of the service 
precluded his wearing the decoration. He held a distinguished service pension, 
and had the gold medal and clasps for Barrossa, Salamanca, Vittoria, Orthes, and 
Toulouse; the silver war medals for Roleia, Yimiera, Corunna, and the Waterloo 
medal and clasp. He married in 1816 Caroline, eldest daughter of Lieutenant- 
General Sir John and Lady Emily Macleod, of which marriage two children survive 
—Colonel Lynedoch Gardiner, and Emily, married to Major George Erend. 
Sir Robert’s intellect remained unclouded almost to the last, notwithstanding that 
he endured much suffering and exhaustion in his last days; he died at Melbourne 
Lodge, Claremount, on the 26th June, 1864. 
