Augustus Abbott was born in London and baptised on 10 March 1804 at St Pancras Old Church, the eldest son of Henry Alexius Abbott, a retired merchant of Blackheath, Kent,[1] and his wife Margaret Welsh, the daughter of William Welsh of Edinburgh.
At the East India Company's Addiscombe Military Seminary (1818–19) he trained as an officer cadet.
He then served with distinction in the First Anglo-Afghan War from 1838 to 1842, where he played an important part in the siege of Jalalabad.
[2] Abbott was promoted to major in 1845 and took part in the capture of Peshawar during the closing of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849.
He was then promoted to major-general in 1859 but earlier that year he had already been forced to return home due to poor health.