Person    | Male  Born 4/5/1726  Died 1/7/1790

Major-General William Roy

Categories: Armed Forces, Engineering, History, Science

Countries: Scotland

Military engineer, surveyor, antiquary. Born South Lanarkshire. Founder of the Ordnance Survey.

1749-55, one of a team that produced "The Duke of Cumberland's Map", commissioned by George II as an aid to subjugating the Scots. Showing Roy's interest in history the map plots many Roman remains. He was promoted up to to major-general, always involved in land surveying, and became a member of the Royal Society.

1784, to assess the relative positions of the French Royal Observatory (Paris) and the British Royal Observatory (Greenwich) he measured a base-line from  King's Arbour (Heathrow) to Hampton Poor House. This was the basis for all subsequent surveys of Britain, using the triangulation technique.

Never married. No pictures seems to exist but we found some of his hand-writing.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Major-General William Roy

Commemorated ati

General Roy's cannon - south

The cannon was installed in 1791 by Mudge. The plaque came later in 1926. Fr...

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Major-General William Roy

Greater London Council Major-General William Roy, 1726 - 1790, founder of th...

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Board of Ordnance / Royal Army Ordnance Corps

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