Sir William Galbraith

1837-1906

William Galbraith was born in Tuam, Ireland, to Reverend John Galbraith and Sarah Courtney. In 1855, after completing his education at Trinity College, he joined the Army with the 85th Foot.

In 1878 he saw active service in the Afghan War, and was present at the fall of Peiwar Kotal, in which the British seized a strategic pass leading to the interior of Afghanistan.

Galbraith’s last important command in the field was that of a brigade in the 1888 Hazara Campaign against the Swati and Yousafi tribes in the Black Mountains of now Pakistan, for which he was awarded the Companionship of the Bath. In 1893 he received the rank of Major-General.

Three years later he married Helen, daughter of Lieutenant Handcock, in Rawalpindi and his sons, Arthur Hugh Courtney and Ian William, were born in Bengal. Sir William was advanced to a KCB in 1897 and retired two years later. He died at 58 FitzGeorge Avenue, West Kensington, in 1906 in his seventieth year.