James Heriot-Maitland

Life Heriot-Maitland was born at Ramornie, Fife in 1837, the youngest son of James Maitland-Heriot, of Ramornie, by his wife Margaret Dalgleish, daughter of William Dalgleish and Janes Isabel Ogilvy. His father was the paternal grandson of Charles Maitland, 6th Earl of Lauderdale.

He was educated privately, and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 20 April 1855. He saw active service in the Second Anglo-Chinese War 1857–59, where he took part in the battle of Canton (December 1857) and the storming of Chek-Hung under Sir Charles van Straubenzee. During the second battle of Taku Forts (June 1859), he was in command of the marksmen on board a division of gunboats during the naval action, and in charge of the ladder party when the assault was made over the mud. For his service in the war, he was specially mentioned in dispatches for gallantry and received the Second China War Medal. Promoted captain on 1 April 1862, he served in Canada during the Fenian raids in the late 1860s. He was promoted to major on 5 July 1872 and to lieutenant-colonel on 20 December 1879, during which time he served in the new British Protectorate of Cyprus. He was placed on the retired list in 1899. He is buried beneath a grey granite slab in the eastern extension to St Andrews Cathedral churchyard.

Family Heriot-Maitland married first, in 1872, to Frances Lorne Mary Campbell, daughter of General Sir John Campbell. After her death in 1876, he married in 1882 Jessie Stewart Hutchings, daughter of Captain George Hutchings, RN. He had two sons (twins) with his first wife, who both followed their father in the army: Brigadier-General James Dalgleish Heriot-Maitland (1874–1958), Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) Major John Campbell Heriot-Maitland (1874–1934)