Major-General Sir John Horsford KCB (13 May 1751 – 20 April 1817) was a British soldier who rose through the ranks to become a general in the East India Company's Bengal Army.
In 1772, to avoid entering the church, and without the knowledge of his father, he enlisted for service with the East India Company under the assumed name of John Rover.
It is said that Pearse suddenly called him by his right name as he was leaving the room and subsequently an order, dated Fort William, 9 March 1778, addressed to ‘Captain Watkin Thelwall, commanding No.
In March 1801, at Cawnpore, Horsford addressed a paper to Lord Lake setting forth the defects in organisation of the artillery branch and that same year was advanced to major.
His high reputation secured attention to his representations, and although he did not live to see the results, the reorganisation of the Bengal artillery that followed in 1817–18 added largely to the efficiency of that famous corps.
Whilst in India, Horsford entered into a long term relationship with an Indian women called Sahib Juan, with whom he had several children.
A historian of the Bengal artillery wrote of him: "A sound constitution and strict temperance enabled him to endure what our modern nervous temperaments would shrink from.
Intellectually, in scientific attainments and habits of order and system he stood confessedly unrivalled"Along with Litellus Burrell, Horsford was a rare example of a man rising from the ranks to a high military position in the East India Company's army.