Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Arbuthnot, KCB (19 November 1773 – 6 May 1853) was a British military commander during the Napoleonic Wars. He was a general in the army, a colonel in the 76th Regiment. He was a brigadier general in the Portuguese Service and was appointed a Knight of the Tower and Sword of Portugal (KTS). He was awarded the Army Gold Cross, with three clasps, for the battles of Busaco, Albuera, Badajoz, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse, and the Military General Service Medal, with two clasps, for Corunna and Ciudad Rodrigo. Biography Arbuthnot was born at Rockfleet Castle, County Mayo, Ireland, the fourth son of agriculturist John Arbuthnot Senior of Rockfleet, Co Mayo. He was the brother of the Right Honourable Charles Arbuthnot, Bishop Alexander Arbuthnot and of Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Arbuthnot. He entered the army as a cornet in the 23rd Light Dragoons on 1 January 1797, and was present at the Battle of Ballinamuck in the Irish rebellion on 8 September of the following year. He subsequently served with his regiment at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1806, and in South America as aide-de-camp to General (afterwards Lord) William Beresford, with whom and the rest of the troops under General Beresford's command he was made a prisoner of war, and remained a prisoner for 18 months, until released under the convention made by General Whitelock. On his return from America, Arbuthnot, then a captain in the 20th Light Dragoons, resumed his position on General Beresford's staff at Madeira, and served with him as aide-de-camp, and afterwards as military secretary, throughout the greater part of the Peninsular War. Besides the Battle of Ballinamuck, two at the Cape, and three in South America, Sir Robert was present at the Battle of Corunna, the passage of the Douro, the battle of Busaco, the lines of Torres Vedras, the siege and reduction of Olivenza, the first siege of Badajoz, the battle of Albuera, the siege and storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, the third siege and storming of Badajoz, the battles of the Nivelle, Nive, passage of the Adour, and the battles of Orthes and Toulouse. He received the gold cross and three clasps for Busaco, Albuera, Badajoz, Nivelle, the Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse, and the war medal and two clasps for Corunna and Ciudad Rodrigo. He also received Portuguese and Spanish orders, including the special star given by