Sergant-Major Patrick Gould, and an Edinburgh Volunteer

Sergeant-Major Patrick Gould (also known as Guild), was a native of Alva born in 1749, who rose from a tailoring apprenticeship to a distinguished military career through his energy and discipline. After serving in the Foot Guards, he became Drill-Sergeant to the Argyllshire Fencibles and later the Edinburgh Volunteers, where over twenty-one years he trained more than two thousand men and earned a lasting reputation for precision, authority, and dedication. Though abrupt in manner and coarse in speech, his humour, distinctive appearance, and effectiveness made him widely respected and even fondly regarded. Supported by influential patrons and remembered for his strict views on discipline and lifelong devotion to soldiering, Gould died in 1815 and was honourably buried in Greyfriars’ Churchyard, commemorated by both verse and stone.