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WHICH IS the unknown Dubliner who is one of the United States’ greatest military heroes and has given his name to cities and counties in 16 American states? Maj Gen Richard Montgomery died in December 1775 in the American War of Independence when he was killed leading an attack through deep snow on the British forces in Quebec. He was the highest-ranking officer in the American colonists’ Continental Army to die in the war.

Montgomery was born in 1738 at Swords. He was the son of Capt Thomas Montgomery who held a seat in the Irish House of Commons representing Donegal. Richard’s elder brother Alexander would later hold that seat and would successfully defend it in the election of 1797 with the support of the United Irishmen. Richard graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1756. He had then pursued a career as an officer in the British Army, seeing action in the Seven Year War against the French in America and Cuba.