Lieutenant General Sir William SKINNER
(1699?-1780)

William Skinner was the son of Thomas Skinner, merchant, of St. Christopher, West Indies, and his wife Elizabeth. He was born in that island in 1699/1700 (the exact date of his birth is unknown some say it was 1699 while others 1700).

Skinner's parents died while he was a child, and he was adopted by his father's sister, Mrs. Lambert, who married, as her second husband, Captain Talbot Edwards RE, chief engineer in Barbados and the Leeward Islands, and afterwards second engineer of Great Britain. Edwards educated young Skinner for his own profession, and on 11 May 1719 Skinner received a warrant as Practitioner Engineer, and commenced his duties with the Ordnance Office at the Tower of London. On Edwards' death on 22 April 1719 he bequeathed to Skinner his maps and instruments, as well as those that had belonged to Sir Martin Beckman, some of them dating as far back as 1660; a sister of Talbot Edwards had married Sir William Beckman (d. 1702), chief engineer of Great Britain.

In 1720 Skinner was employed at the gun-wharf, Devonport, under Colonel Christian Lilly. He was sent to Port Mahon, Minorca in 1722 where, under Captain Kane William Horneck, extensive fortifications were in course of construction, and where Skinner consequently received a professional training, which afterwards proved of the utmost value to him.

Two years later (1724) he began what turned out to be a very long association with Gibraltar, when he was posted there after he had been selected to assist Captain Jonas Moore in the first survey of that spit of land jutting south from the Iberian peninsular. On the completion of the survey was he returned to Port Mahon but he posted back to Gibraltar on promotion to Sub-Engineer on 20 February 1726. He served throughout the 1727 siege of Gibraltar, and for his good conduct the Governor awarded him additional pay. In 1728 he was appointed, in addition to his engineer duties, to barrack-master. On 10 March 1729 he was promoted to be Engineer Extraordinary.

When Moore was temporarily absent from Gibraltar in 1736 and 1738, Skinner took on his responsibilities as acting Chief Engineer during this time he made several views of the Rock, some of which are preserved in the British Museum, and others are at the Royal Engineer's Institute at Chatham, having been presented by Major Skinner and his son, Captain Monier William Skinner RE in 1878. On 7 February 1738 he was promoted to Engineer-in-Ordinary. After Jonas Moore was killed at Carthagena on 22 March 1741, Skinner was appointed Chief Engineer Gibraltar by warrant dated 1 July 1741. On 1 January 1743 he was promoted to the rank of Sub Director, and on 30 September 1746 to that of Director.

After the Jacobite rebellion was crushed in 1746, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, His Royal Highness The Duke of Cumberland (1721-65) applied to his father, King George II (1727-60) for an engineer of high standing to construct fortresses that would thoroughly control the disaffected Highlanders. Orders were consequently given to John Montagu, Duke of Montagu (1690-1749), Master-General of the Ordnance to name a skilful officer for this duty. Skinner was selected, recalled from Gibraltar and sent to Scotland as Chief Engineer of North Britain.

On 7 February 1747 he arrived at Inverness after an arduous journey, and at once set about his work surveying and planning. By 23 May 1747 Skinner had sent in a plan for the restoration of Fort Augustus, which had been built at the southern end of Lock Ness after the 1715 Jacobite uprising, but had been demolished by rebels in 1745. He then proposed a magazine to contain150 barrels of gunpowder for Dumbarton Castle, as well as, submitting an estimate and plans for a new fort (to be named Fort George) at Inverness. The proposed fort was to be located on the same site as Oliver's fort, but unfortunately the plan was rejected by the local Council. It was not until 1748 that, owing to difficulties in procuring land at Ardersier Point, he was able to commence Fort George from his own designs. Wolfe, the hero of Quebec, who was stationed in the Highlands in 1751, wrote that Fort George would, when completed, 'be the most considerable fortress and best situated in Great Britain.'

Fort George from the west (Photo: Historic Scotland)
Fort George - Guardhouse (Photo: Undiscovered Scotland)	Fort George - Interior of Chapel (Photo: Undiscovered Scotland)
Fort George - Barrack square (Photo: Undiscovered Scotland) The building of Fort George 1748-69 Fort George is located on an isolated spit of land jutting west into the Moray Firth at Ardersier, 11 miles north east of Inverness. It was designed by the King's Military Engineer for North Britain, William Skinner. His original proposals were to build a fortress on the site of the ruins of an artillery fort Cromwell's forces had built at Inverness in the years up to 1657. In 1747 Skinner let a contract for the fortress, only to have Inverness Council make a claim for compensation for the loss of the use of part of the harbour. He therefore looked instead for an alternative site. A spit of land at Ardersier seemed ideal, providing more space than the site at Inverness and being inherently more secure because of its location. Work began in 1748. Most of the skilled labour and the materials were brought in by sea and the construction site itself had to be defensible against attack. Around 1,600 officers and soldiers were used to provide labour and to defend the area. By 1757 the main defences were in place and some of the internal buildings were starting to emerge, and the final building, the chapel, was started in 1763. Fort George was finally completed, well behind schedule, in 1769. It was also well over budget. The original estimates for construction had been a remarkably precise £92,673 19s 1d. The final cost was more than £200,000, a figure larger than the Gross National Product of Scotland in 1750. Source: Undiscovered Scotland (2009)

In December 1753 Skinner submitted his plans of a pier at Fort Augustus, and for additional accommodation for 270 men at Edinburgh Castle. Braemar and Corgarf Castles also were subjected to his masterly designs.

In 1752 Skinner was appointed president of a committee of officers of engineers, and in accordance with whose report (submitted 3 December 1754) magazines were erected at Purfleet, as a depot for military ammunition and combustibles.

Skinner, in 1756, submitted an extensive report, with numerous designs and drawings, on the fortifications of Ireland. He had been sent there, on the recommendation of the Duke of Cumberland, the previous year as part of the preparations for a conflict with France that became known as the Sevens Years War (1756-65). As it transpired the fighting took place in North America and India so it was not until 28 years later when Colonel Charles Vallancey was called upon to report on the defences of Ireland that Skinner's proposals were finally put to use. On the completion of his service in Ireland Skinner resumed his duties in Scotland.

On 1 May 1757 he received a commission as colonel in the army, and on 14 May he received the royal patent constituting him Chief Engineer of Great Britain.

The Master-General of the Ordnance, Charles Spencer, Duke of Marlborough (1706-58) requested Skinner to report upon the new defences at Gibraltar constructed under James O'Hara, Lord Tyrawley (1682 -1774), Governor of Gibraltar, the works were useless, and had not been approved by Major (later Colonel Sir) William Green Chief Engineer at Gibraltar. The report was submitted on on 24 February 1758 and was very unfavourable to the unfortunate attempts at amateur engineering on the part of Lord Tyrawley. In the meantime the Paymaster of the Forces, Henry Fox (later Baron Holland) endeavoured in parliament to screen his friend Tyrawley, and Skinner had to appear at the bar of the House to justify his adverse opinions. He held his own during a very brisk encounter with Tyrawley, who cross-examined him. In 1759, 1769, and 1770 Skinner was again called upon to advise and report on the defences of Gibraltar. On the last occasion suggestions made by Colonel Sir William Green, Chief Engineer at Gibraltar were carried out, after the plans had been revised by Skinner, who wrote:

Greenwich, 30th August, 1770

Right Honble. and Honble. Gentlemen,
"In consequence of your orders, I have considered and examined Lieut.-Colonel Green's projects and reports on the present state of the works at Gibraltar, and herewith enclose my opinion and report of same. Lieut.-Colonel Green has been very exact in his account of this place. I speak by my own knowledge, there is hardly fifty yards that doth not vary in the advantages or disadvantages for or against the attacker. And I cannot help adding that an Engineer, to understand and know this place, must not only reside there for some time, but he must not be idle and remain in his quarters when there. For the man that designs to make himself master of the defences of this place must be perfectly acquainted with every rock, every precipice, and every fort and foible on the mountain, to be ready on a call for its defence, as well as a knowledge of the round or circuit of the walls. This knowledge of the mountain cannot be obtained but by great labor as well as time ; the different precipices vary in their nature so very much that they may easily deceive a passenger, and appear in a very different light at first sight to what they would do on his closer examination of them, both within and without. For I do conceive, and I think I can affirm, that there is not a known place that is so peculiarly circumstanced and situated in Europe as Gibraltar is, and which with a proper garrison may be so advantageously defended.

Meantime he was engaged on the survey and defences of Milford Haven (1758-9 and 1761), and reported on the garrisons and defences of Portsmouth and Plymouth. He supervised the enlargement of the gun-wharf at Devonport, and the erection of new magazines, and the remodeling and augmentation of the Great Lines at Chatham to ensure a better defence to the dockyard.

On 18 February 1761 Skinner was promoted to be Major General, and on 7 March his patent as Chief Engineer of Great Britain was renewed by George III. He was then sent to Belle Isle, then recently captured, to report on its defences. He was promoted to be Lieutenant-General in the army on 30 April 1770.

During his lengthened service in Scotland he received the Freedom of the following cities: Inverness, Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth, Aberdeen, and Athlone.

He died in harness at his residence, Croom's Hill, Greenwich, on 25 December 1780. He was buried at St. Alphege Church, Greenwich. The slab over his grave bears the following inscription:

Skinner left a widow, Margaret (nee Caldwell), to whom the king granted a special pension, and an only son, William Campbell. Many of Skinner's descendants were to serve in the Royal Engineers.

Sources:

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol II. Porter W (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1951)

Follow the Sapper by G Napier (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 2005)

The Dictionary of National Biography

Links to further reading:

Corps History Part 5 - Global Wars and a third Corps (1756-1815)