THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE AUGUSTUS, Lord Heathfield, was the youngest son of Sir Gilbert Elliot, Baronet, of Stobbs, in Roxburghshire, and was born about the year 1718. He received the rudiments of his education under a private tutor, and at an early period of life was sent to the university of Leyden, where he made considerable progress in classical learning, and spoke with fluency and elegance the German and French languages. Being designed for a military life, he was sent from thence to the celebrated Ecole Royale du Genie Militaire, conducted by Vauban, at La Fere in Picardy, where he laid the foundation of that science which he so conspicuously exhibited at the defence of Gibraltar. He completed his military course on the Continent by a tour, undertaken for the purpose of seeing in practice what he had studied in theory. Prussia was the model for discipline, and he continued some time as a volunteer in the service of that state.

Mr Elliot returned, in the seventeenth year of his age, to his native country, Scotland; and was the same year, 1735, introduced by his father Sir Gilbert, to Lieutenant-Colonel Peers of the twenty-third regiment of foot, then stationed at Edinburgh, as a youth anxious to bear arms for his king and country. He was accordingly entered as a volunteer in that regiment, where he continued for upwards of a year. From the twenty-third regiment he went into the engineer corps at Woolwich, and made great progress in study, until his uncle Colonel Elliot appointed him adjutant of the second troop of horse grenadiers. With these troops he went upon service to Germany, and was present with them in a variety of actions. At the battle of Dettingen he was wounded. In this regiment he obtained the rank of captain and major, and afterwards purchased the lieutenant-colonelcy. On arriving at this grade he resigned his commission as engineer, which he had enjoyed along with his regimental rank, and quitted a branch of the service in which he had been actively employed very much to the advantage of his country. He received the instructions of the famous engineer Bellidor, and made himself completely master of the science of gunnery; and had he not so disinterestedly resigned his rank in the engineer department, he would long before his death have, by regular progression, reached the head of that corps. Soon after this he was appointed aid-de-camp to George II. and was distinguished for his military skill and discipline. In the year 1759 he quitted the second troop of horse grenadier guards, being selected to raise, form, and discipline, the first regiment of light horse, which was called after him Elliot's. As soon as they were raised and formed he was appointed to the command of the cavalry in the expedition on the coasts of France, with the rank of brigadier-general. After this he passed into Germany, where he was employed on the staff, and greatly distinguished himself.

During the peace he was not idle. His great talents in the various branches of the military art procured him ample employment. In the year 1775 he was appointed to succeed General A'Court as commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland; but he did not continue long on this station, not even long enough to unpack all his trunks; for finding that interferences were made by petty authority derogatory of his own, he resisted the practice with becoming spirit; and not choosing to disturb the government of the sister kingdom on a matter personal to himself, he solicited to be recalled. The government acceded to his request, and, in a fortunate hour for the safety of Gibraltar, he was appointed to the command of that important fortress. The system of his life, as well as his education, peculiarly qualified him for this trust. He was perhaps the most abstemious man of the age, indulging himself neither in animal food nor in wine. He never slept more than four hours at a time, so that he was up later and earlier than most other men. He so insured himself to habits of hardiness, that the things which prove difficult and painful to other men were to him his daily practice, and rendered pleasant by use. It could not be easy to starve such a man into a surrender, nor possible to surprise him. The example of the commander-in-chief in a besieged garrison has the most persuasive efficacy in forming the manners of a soldiery. Like him, his brave followers came to regulate their lives by the most strict rules of discipline before there arose a necessity for so doing; and severe exercise, with short diet, became habitual to them from their own choice. The military system of discipline which he introduced, and the preparations which he made for his defence, were contrived with so much judgment, and executed with so much address, that he was able with a handful of men to preserve his post against an attack, the constancy of which, even apart from the vigour with which it was made, would have been sufficient to exhaust any common set of men. Collected within himself, he in no instance attempted by premature attacks to destroy the labours which it would cost the enemy time, patience, and expense to complete; he deliberately observed their approaches, and, with the justest discernment, seized on the proper moment at which to make his attack with success. He never spent his ammunition in useless parade or in unimportant efforts. He never relaxed his discipline from the appearance of security, nor hazarded the lives of his garrison by wild experiments. By a cool and temperate demeanour, he maintained his station for three years of constant investment, in which the whole powers of Spain were employed against him. All the eyes of Europe were on this garrison; and his conduct has justly exalted him to the most elevated rank in the military annals of his time. On his return to England, the gratitude of the British senate was as forward as the public voice in awarding him that distinguished honour which his merit deserved. Both houses of parliament voted an unanimous address of thanks to the general; the king conferred on him the honour of knight of the bath, with a pension during his own and a second life of his own appointment; and on the 14th June 1787, his majesty advanced him to the peerage by the title of Lord Heathfield, Baron Gibraltar, permitting him to take, in addition to his family arms, the arms of the fortress which he had so bravely defended.

His lordship died on the 9th of July 1790 at Aix-la-Chapelle, of a second stroke of the palsy, after having for some weeks preceding enjoyed tolerable good health and an unusual flow of spirits. His death happened two days before he was to have set out for Leghorn on his way to Gibraltar, of which place he was once more appointed governor, in the view of an approaching war. He married Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Drake of Devonshire, and had by her Francis Augustus, by whom he was succeeded in his title.