Showing 6390 results

William Yule was the son of George and Elizabeth Yule; his family were farmers in East Lothian, Scotland. He was appointed a cadet in the Bengal Army in December 1780, aged sixteen, and sailed for India the following March. He was Assistant Resident in Lucknow and Delh,i and Postmaster in Lucknow in 1800. In October 1806 he was promoted to Major, retiring in 1808. He was offered the Lieutenant-Governorship of St Helena in 1807, but did not accept. In 1811 he married Eliza, eldest daughter of William Paterson of Braehead. He died at 25 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh on 6 October 1839.

William James Adair Nelson, the elder son of H. Adair Nelson who was the original manager of His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School (1914-24). On leaving school he was apprenticed to chartered accountants Williamson & Dunn, qualifying with distinction in 1930 when he took up a series of appointments with London accounting firms, followed by five years in Colombo working for Ford, Rhodes & Thornton. He served in the Royal Artillery in the Middle East during WWII. In 1946 he was appointed Finance Inspector to the Ministry of Food in Colwyn Bay, later becoming Finance Officer to the National Coal Board. In 1948 he was appointed Treasurer and Assistant Secretary at Aberdeen University where he remained until his retirement in 1975.

During his five years in Sri Lanka he developed an interest in castles and artillery fortifications and after his retirement he wrote Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka published in 1984. He then went on to study Fort Jesus at Mombasa and his book of the same name was published posthumously in 1994. Nelson was an active member of the Fortress Study Group for which he wrote many articles.