It is named after General Sir Ralph Abercromby, commander of the British Army in Egypt, who was killed at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.
Near Abū Qīr, on 8 March 1801, units of the British army commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby landed from their transports in the face of a strenuous opposition from a French force entrenched on the beach.
Austrian Feldzeugmeister Joseph Ferraris commanded the 2nd Main Column (12 battalions, 12 squadrons), which included Abercromby's Brigade of the British 14th Foot and 53rd Foot.
With the British Guards brigade under Henry Fox leading the attack, the Duke of York's left column under Ralph Abercromby, stormed into Lannoy, Willems and Mouvaux.
1797 – Ralph Abercromby (General Ralph Abercromby) and Henry Harvey (Admiral Henry Harvey), with a force of 7,000–13,000 men, invaded the island of Puerto Rico.
On 6 October 1799, a Franco-Dutch army under Guillaume Brune defeated an Anglo-Russian army under Ralph Abercromby and the Duke of York in the Battle of Castricum.
In 1797 Trinidad, who had been previously controlled by the Spanish Crown, was captured by a fleet commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby and thus came under British government.
In 1801 he served under Abercromby and Hely-Hutchinson in the Egyptian Campaign commanding the Guards Brigade, seeing action at Aboukir, and Alexandria (Canope).
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Ralph Lauren | Ralph Nader | Ralph Vaughan Williams | Ralph Fiennes | Ralph Steadman | Ralph Macchio | Ralph Bunche | Ralph Bakshi | Ralph Richardson | Ralph Stanley | Ralph McTell | Ralph Ellison | Ralph Jordan | Ralph | Ralph Abercromby | Ralph Molnar | Ralph Records | Ralph Peterson, Jr. | Ralph Klein | Ralph H. Fowler | Ralph Tresvant | Ralph Moore | Ralph Wilson | Ralph Terry | Ralph "Shug" Jordan | Ralph Peterson | Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland | Ralph Inzunza | Ralph Darling |
Under the leadership of Julien Fédon, owner of a plantation in the mountainous interior of the island, and encouraged by French Revolutionary leaders on Guadeloupe, the rebels seized control of most of the island (St. George's, the capital, was never taken), but were eventually crushed by a military expedition led by General Ralph Abercromby.
He received the brevet rank of colonel in January 1800, and fought in the later stages of the Egyptian campaign under Ralph Abercromby, capturing Rosetta without a fight and successfully investing the nearby Fort Julien in April 1801.
He died at Collinton House, Midlothian, in April 1858, aged 81, and was succeeded in the barony by his son, Sir Ralph Abercromby, KCB, who was Secretary of Legation at Berlin and served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sardinia between 1840 and 1851 and to The Hague between 1851 and 1858.