Monteith left Persia in October 1829, and on his way home was present with the French army at the capture of Algiers in July 1830. He returned to India in July 1832, and was appointed chief engineer at Madras, but in January 1834 was superseded by the arrival of Colonel Gurnard. Monteith then became superintending engineer at the presidency, but on Gurnard's death, 2 September 1836, he again became chief engineer, and an ex officio member of the military board, a position he held to 18 July 1842. He became a major-general on 23 November 1841, retired from the service in 1847, and attained the honorary rank of lieutenant-general in 1854. He died at his residence, Upper Wigmore Street, London, on 18 April 1864, aged 73. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of various foreign learned societies, and a knight of the Persian Order of the Lion and the Sun.