page_title: Sir William Green, 1st Baronet
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Sir William Green, 1st Baronet / Military career
caption_attribution_description: English: William Green, Chief Engineer of Gibraltar
context_page_description: General Sir William Green, 1st Baronet, of Marass, Kent was an officer in the British Army.
  After receiving a private education in Aberdeen, Scotland and a military education at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England, he was appointed as a practitioner engineer in 1743. Green served on the European continent until 1752, after which he was in Canada. There, he continued to advance through both the ordinary military and engineering ranks.
  Following his return to England, Green was named senior engineer for Gibraltar about 1761, and the next year promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to chief engineer for Gibraltar in 1770, and designed and executed a number of military works on the Rock. In 1772, his idea of a regiment of military artificers, to replace the civilian mechanics who had formerly constructed military works, came to fruition in the form of the Soldier Artificer Company, the predecessor of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. Their works included the King's Bastion, which Green designed. Promoted to colonel in 1777, he served as chief engineer throughout the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
context_section_description: On 1 January 1737, Green became a cadet gunner, entering the Royal Military Academy at the Woolwich Warren in Woolwich, southeast London. After his appointment as a practitioner engineer on 12 March 1743, Green was stationed at Portsmouth. He served in Flanders with the engineer brigade and was a participant in the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. The following year, he saw action in France at L'Orient and Quiberon. Green was promoted to sub-engineer on 2 January 1747. That year, he sustained wounds and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Val. He also saw action at the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. Green was appointed engineer-extraordinary on 2 January 1748. After the British Army withdrew from Flanders, he and other engineers stayed to survey the Austrian Netherlands. After he left the Netherlands, he returned to Portsmouth, where he remained until 1750. He then went to Landguard Fort, under the command of Justly Watson. Plans that he and another officer drew up of the tunnels and caves of the fortress of Luxemburg, and of the area between Bois-le-Duc and Geertruidenberg, are held by the British Museum. That museum also retains his plans of the fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom, dated 1751.
  Green surveyed and reported on the defences of Newfoundland in 1752. Three years later, he became chief engineer of Newfoundland. When the engineers first received routine military titles, he was commissioned as captain lieutenant. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, he trained the soldiers in military engineering. On 4 January 1758, Green received promotions to engineer-in-ordinary and captain. He was a participant in multiple actions in Canada, including those at Montmorenci, Quebec, and the Plains of Abraham in 1759. In September of that year, he was promoted to sub-director, an engineer rank, and major. He remained with the Canadian campaign until its conclusion, after which he returned to England.
  In 1761, Green was sent to Gibraltar as senior engineer. The following year, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Green returned to England in 1769 to present his suggestions for improving the defence of Gibraltar to the Board of Ordnance. He returned to Gibraltar in 1770; his report on the defences of Gibraltar is held by the British Museum. General Skinner, the chief engineer of Great Britain, supported the expenditures necessary for Green's military works, which were then undertaken. Green was promoted to chief engineer of Gibraltar on 7 November 1770 and the following year designed the hospital at Gibraltar.
  Prior to 1772, military works in Gibraltar were constructed by civilians from England and the European continent. Those civil mechanics were free to leave the Rock of Gibraltar whenever they decided to do so. Their disorderly behaviour was a source of frustration to the military authorities. The situation induced Lieutenant Colonel William Green to suggest the creation of a company of military artificers, a regiment of trained artisans. On 6 March 1772, a warrant was issued for the creation of a 68-man regiment, the Soldier Artificer Company. It was the predecessor of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. The Soldier Artificer Company built King's Bastion. Green designed the fortification, along with other eighteenth century bastions along the coast.
  In 1777, Green was promoted to colonel, after which he was sent by Governor George Augustus Eliott to England to request additional funds to further improve the military works at Gibraltar. His meetings included several with the king and he returned to Gibraltar the following year, authorised to proceed with the new works. He was promoted to director, an engineer rank, on 18 December 1778. During the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–1783), Green served in a prominent role as the chief engineer of Gibraltar. In 1781, during the siege, he was promoted to brigadier general. However, the position of his home left his family exposed to enemy fire. After he moved his family into a shelter, his wife Miriam contracted an illness from which she never recovered. She died on 21 June 1782.
  On 18 July 1781, the Queen's 
caption: William Green, Chief Engineer of Gibraltar; by George Carter
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