Rollo Gillespie

Rollo Gillespie

Rollo Gillespie (1766-1814) grew up in County Down, but instead of going to Cambridge, joined the 3rd Irish Horse as a Cornet. He was involved in a duel, fled to Scotland, but then returned voluntarily to stand trial in 1788. The verdict was 'justifiable homicide'. He then joined the Jamaica Light Dragoons, was shipwrecked at Madeira and contracted yellow fever. He fought the French at Tiburon Peninsula, Port-au-Prince, Fort Bizotten and For de l'Hopital.

He was Adjutant-General of St. Domingo when eight men broke into his house. Armed only with his sword, he killed six of them and the other two fled. He was then involved in a fraud scandal but was acquitted by court martial in 1804. He traveled overland through Hamburg, Greece and Baghdad to India.

He assisted in quelling Vellore Mutiny in 1806. He was hauled up to the battlements by rope to take command.

In 1811 he took the city of Batavia in Dutch Java. In 1812 he deposed the Sultan of Sumatra. On his return to India he killed a tiger in the open on Bangalore racecourse. In 1814, at the beginning of the Gurkha War he led a column to attack a Nepalese hill fort at Kalunga. The Gurkhas launched a sortie which was repulsed.

Gillespie tried to follow them back into the fort with a dismounted party of the 8th Dragoons. Although this failed, Gillespie renewed the attack with companies of the 53rd Foot. He was trying to rally these men, just thirty yards from the fort when a Gurkha sharpshooter shot him through the heart. Without him the attack collapsed.

Notes

The statue of Major General Sir Rollo Gillespie was unveiled on 4 June 1845 (St. John's Day) in the Town Square of Comber. Fifty lodges of the Masonic Order were present, in what is believed to be the biggest Masonic gathering in Irish history. It was calculated that 25,000 to 30,000 people crowded into the town to witness the ceremony. The column is 55 feet high. At the foot of the column are many Masonic symbols and his famous last words "One shot more for the honor of Down"


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