Footnotes

• Robert was the seventh and youngest son of Sir Thomas Dundas (1741-1820) of Loftus Hall and Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam (1746-1833).
  
  Having been educated at Harrow, Robert entered the army on 1 December 1797 as a Second Lieutenant and saw his first instance of active service in Northern Holland. His military career would go on to span 47 years. Having seen action against Napoleon's forces in the Battle of Alexandria during the Egyptian campaign of 1801 and attained his Majority, from 1807 Robert - now in the Royal Staff Corps - served in a catalogue of the pivotal battles of the Peninsular War: Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onor, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive and Toulouse. In recognition of his gallantry, Robert received the Portugese Order of the Tower and Sword and was made a Knight Commander of the Bath. Robert became a Lieutenant-General of the British Army and Colonel of the 59th on 23 November 1841, an honour bestowed in tribute to the birth of the Prince of Wales.
  
  Following a strong family political tradition, Robert sat for the Whig Party in the constituency of Richmond, Yorkshire between 1828 and 1830. He can be identified in Sir George Hayter's 1833 portrait of Members of the House of Commons (National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 54). Seemingly, it was through his parliamentary career that Robert became an eminent philanthropist. A proponent of education for the poor, Robert established the Loftus Parochial School and acted as sole patron for the sister institution of the Church Sunday School, which annually clothed and fed in excess of one hundred children. His obituary in 'The Stokesley Advertiser' aptly suggested that 'the widow, the orphan and the stranger will long and deeply feel his death a loss quite irreparable'.

---

Category: Fine Art / Portrait Miniatures

---

Auction terms and conditions