Robert Adair

Robert Adair in an engraving from 1791 by J. Jones after F. L. Abbott's 1780s portrait

Robert Adair (c. 1711 – 1790) was an Irish surgeon who became chief surgeon to the British Army and Master of the Surgeon's Company, and married into the British aristocracy.

Career Trained in Dublin, he was accused in 1737 of adultery with Anglo-Irish poet Laetitia Pilkington and left Ireland to travel to London. Adair became a member of the London Company of Barbers and Surgeons in 1738. The travels of Adair in Italy in the 1770s are documented by art historian Sir Brinsley Ford, including a collection of bronzes, marbles and Old Master paintings that were auctioned at Christies in May 1790.

The song 'Robin Adair' was composed by Caroline in tribute to her husband after her aristocratic family's reaction to her proposed marriage.