Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jardine, Alexander
JARDINE, ALEXANDER (d. 1799), lieutenant-colonel, captain royal invalid artillery, entered the artillery as a private matross in March 1755, and was transferred to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet in June 1757. (Promotion from the ranks to commissions in the artillery did not cease entirely until 1776.) Jardine passed out of the academy as a lieutenant-fireworker on 8 Feb. 1758, became a second lieutenant on 11 Sept. 1762, first lieutenant on 28 May 1766, captain-lieutenant on 28 April 1773, was transferred to the invalid establishment on 1 Nov. 1776, became captain in 1777, brevet-major in 1783, and brevet lieutenant-colonel in 1793. While stationed at Gibraltar he collected a mass of valuable professional observations, and presented them in 1772 to the Regimental Society, Woolwich, which he actively helped to establish in 1772–5. These papers are now in the Royal Artillery Institute (cf. Royal Artillery Institute Proceedings, vol. i.). When at Gibraltar in 1771 Jardine was sent by the governor, General Stephen Cornwallis, on a mission to the emperor of Morocco. Jardine's account of Morocco, with letters written during subsequent visits to France and Spain, from Portugal in 1779, and from Jersey in 1787, were published by him under the title ‘Letters from Morocco, &c. By an English Officer,’ London, 1790, 2 vols. 8vo. Jardine died in Portugal on 16 July 1799.
[Kane's List of Officers Roy. Artillery (revised ed. Woolwich, 1869), p. 9; Proc. Roy. Art. Inst. vol. i. pp. xvii–xxxii; Duncan's Hist. Roy. Artillery, London, 1872; biographical notices prefixed to Lefroy's Official Cat. Artillery Museum; Jardine's Letters.]