Philip Ravenhill

Major General Philip Ravenhill (9 February 1828 – 24 February 1891) was a Royal Engineer who rose to be their commander in Gibraltar. Life Ravenhill was born at the Manor House in Warminster in 1828, the second son of John Ravenhill and Sophia Harriet (born Ripley). John Ravenhill was the Chairman of the North Wiltshire Banking Company; he later moved to Ashton Gifford House and was High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1870. After receiving his commission in 1846, Ravenhill was sent to Plymouth and then to Malta where he married Jane Carter – who came from a notable Royal Navy family – on 31 March 1853 at St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Valletta. In 1854 he was at the Crimea taking part in the Battle of Alma, the Battle of Inkerman and the Siege of Sebastapol. He had to return to the UK in 1855 with a throat infection.