Dury, Alexander (1704 -1758)

Major General Alexander Dury, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Guards, born in Edinburgh on 11 December 1704, was the younger son of Theodore Dury de Chamfort (1661-1742) and Marie Anne (1673-1769), daughter of Jean-Pierre Boullier, sieur de Beauregard. He was.  He fell in action at St Cast-le-Guildo, Brittany, near St Malo on 11 September 1758.  In 1753 he married Isabella, daughter of Edmond Turnor of Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, Prior to his marriage Alexander had three children with Barbara Moncrieff who had been a servant in Alexander’s parent’s house. With Isabella he had a son and a daughter.  Isabella inherited an estate from her maternal grandfather, Sir Henry Ferne, who had been Receiver General.

Dury prepared, with The Duke of Cumberland and his adjutant general, Robert Napier The 1757 Manual Exercise, which retained the platoon firing system until 1763 when a new one was required.  Dury’s portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds