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John Alston was the eldest son of
John Alston and Marion Millar, who married in Glasgow on 21st June 1761; their
son was born in Glasgow on 10th March 1762. Further details of his life are
unknown before he purchased an ensign’s commission in the 14th Regiment of
Foot on 4th September 1778. Less than two years later, early in 1780, he
purchased his promotion to lieutenant.
The war that began in America in
1775 necessitated the rapid raising of new regiments. The extension to India of
what, by 1779, had become a world war meant that even more regiments had to be
raised. The 100th Regiment of Foot was one of these and, as a result of the
demand for additional officers, Alston obtained his next step in rank. The
embryonic 100th was augmented to the size of a battalion in August 1780 and,
accordingly, John Alston was enabled to purchase his captaincy in the 100th
Foot with effect from 9th August 1780.
When this painting was last sold in
auction, at Sothebys on 12th July 1995 (lot 65), the sitter was catalogued as
depicted in the uniform of the Cambridge Militia: this was presumably based
upon the use of the letter C on the buttons of the sitter’s uniform coat.
Subsequent research has revealed that the letter is actually the Roman numeral
for 100 - the number of the regiment that Alston joined in 1780 and which,
unlike the Cambridge Militia, had white facings.
Alston sailed with his regiment for
service overseas in March 1781 and disembarked in India in January 1782 to take
part in the Second Mysore War, in which conflict Britain was opposed by Hyder
Ali, the ruler of Mysore, and his French allies. After a series of campaigns in
the south of India against Hyder Ali and, following his death in 1782, his son,
Tipu Sultan, the 100th Foot was part of a British garrison forced to surrender
at Bednore (or Hydernagur) on 30th April 1783.
Imprisonment in various fortresses
followed while peace was negotiated between the British and Tipu but the
negotiations became protracted and Tipu lost patience: he had also lost his
French allies through separate peace negotiations between Britain and France.
He issued orders that all British prisoners were to be executed and, although
some of these orders were subsequently countermanded or overtaken by events,
Alston was among twenty-three British officers who were poisoned in July 1783
on the orders of Tipu. Alston’s place of burial is unknown and so it must
be assumed that his bones lie somewhere in Mysore, along with those of
twenty-two of his comrades.
This portrait was published in the
Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, vol. LXXIV (1996),
pp.141-143.
Oil on canvas by John Trotter.
Sold
as lot 457 by Sotheby's at Fawley House, Oxfordshire,
14-15 October 2003.
Reproduced by courtesy of The Hon. David McAlpine. |
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