Alexander Dirom

Who was Alexander Dirom?

General Alexander Dirom. Born 21 May 1757. Died Annan 6 October 1830. He was appointed Ensign in the 61st Regiment of Foot on 8 Dec. 1778 and Lt. in the 88th Foot 13 Oct. 1779. He served with the regiment in Barbados and Jamaica as Military Secretary to the GoC and Major of Brigade. He exchanged in to the 60th as a Captain in 1781 and in 1783 went to St Domingo to negotiate an exchange of Prisoners of War. In 1784 he returned to England. He was Aide-de-Camp to Major General Sir Archibald Campbell and subsequently served in India against Tippoo Sahib in the Third Mysore War. Fellow Royal Society 10 July 1795.

Son of Alexander Dirom, Provost of Banff and Anne née Fotheringham, he was brother of Sophia who married George Duff. Married Edinburgh 3 August 1793 Magdalen Pasley. 12 recorded children including Lt John Pasley Dirom, Sophia Dirom, Captain Alexander Dirom, Robert Dirom, Andrew Dirom, William Maxwell Dirom, Francis Moira Dirom and Admiral James Dirom.

There is a "school of Raeburn" 3/4 length portrait, supposedly of him, which has Dirom's face painted onto an ensign in the red uniform of a regiment to which Dirom never belonged.