Major-General Augustus Abbott was an army officer in the British East India Company.
Background
Augustus Abbott was born in London and baptised on 10 March 1804 at Street Pancras Old Church, the eldest son of Henry Alexius Abbott, a retired Calcutta merchant of Blackheath, Kent, and his wife Margaret Welsh, the daughter of William Welsh of Edinburgh.
Career
He was the eldest of several prominent brothers. He served in various military campaigns including the First Anglo-Afghan War. He died at Cheltenham, to which he had retired, having been discharged from the army due to poor health.
He had the following siblings:
Margaret (1801–1877)
Major General Sir Frederick Abbott, Central Bank (1805–1892): also an officer in the East India Company
General Sir James Abbott, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1807–1896)
Emma Abbott (1809–1875)
Major General Saunders Alexius Abbott (1811–1894), Major General in the Bengal Army.
Agent at Lahore for the Sind, Punjab and Delhi Railway, from 1863 and subsequently a home director Keith Edward Abbott, Consul General (1814–1873)
Edmund Abbott (1816–1816)
Augustus was educated at Winchester College, and at the East India Company"s military seminary at Addiscombe (1818-1819) where he trained as an officer cadet.
In 1819, aged 15, he sailed for India, as second lieutenant, and by 1835 had been made captain. He then served with distinction in the First Anglo-Afghan War from 1838 to 1842, where he played an important part in the siege of Jalalabad.
In 1843 Abbott married Sophia Frances Garstin, daughter of Captain John Garstin.
He was promoted to major in 1845 and major-general in 1859, but earlier that year he had already been forced to return home due to poor health. He died in Cheltenham in 1867. Augustus" son, Colonel Henry Alexis Abbott (b 22 January 1849) served in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1881).