Early Life
Montgomery was born in Swords, Ireland. His father, Thomas Montgomery, was a former British Army Officer and a member of the Irish Parliament. He was a brother of Colonel Alexander Montgomery (1720–1800) and a cousin of Colonel Alexander Montgomery (1686–1729), both Members of Parliament for County Donegal. Another first cousin was an M.P. for County Monaghan,also named Alexander Montgomery (died 1785).
Richard Montgomery spent most of his childhood near Donegal, where he learned to hunt, ride, shoot, and fence. Thomas Montgomery made sure that Montgomery received a good education; he learned French, Latin, and rhetoric, and attended a school outside of Belfast. In 1754, the same year that the French and Indian War began in North America, Montgomery enrolled in Trinity College.
Despite his great love of knowledge Montgomery did not receive a degree. He was urged by his father and his oldest brother Alexander to join the military, which he did on September 21, 1756. His father purchased an ensign's commission for Montgomery, who joined the 17th Regiment of Foot.
Read more about this topic: Richard Montgomery
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Early education can only promise to help make the third and fourth and fifth years of life good ones. It cannot insure without fail that any tomorrow will be successful. Nothing “fixes” a child for life, no matter what happens next. But exciting, pleasing early experiences are seldom sloughed off. They go with the child, on into first grade, on into the child’s long life ahead.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“For me, the principal fact of life is the free mind. For good and evil, man is a free creative spirit. This produces the very queer world we live in, a world in continuous creation and therefore continuous change and insecurity. A perpetually new and lively world, but a dangerous one, full of tragedy and injustice. A world in everlasting conflict between the new idea and the old allegiances, new arts and new inventions against the old establishment.”
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957)