This officer commenced his military career as ensign in the seventy-fifth regiment, his commission being dated 22nd of November, 1800, from which he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the sixty-second foot, on the 27th of June, 1802; was appointed to the ninth battalion of reserve on the 20th of December, 1803, and removed to the forty-second Royal Highland regiment on the 5th of January of the following year. Lieutenant Dick was promoted to the rank of Captain in the seventy-eighth regiment on the 17th of April, 1804, and embarked with the second battalion of that corps for Sicily in 1806; in the battle of Maida, which was fought on the 4th of July, 1806, Captain Dick was wounded; was also present at the taking of the fortress of Catrone in Calabria. Admiral Sir John Duckworth having failed in his mission to detach Turkey from the interests of France, Great Britain determined to seize upon Egypt, as a check to any fresh demonstration by the French against the British possessions in the East Indies, and an armament sailed from Sicily in February, 1807, and landed at Aboukir on the 18th of the following month. This expedition was under the command of Major-General Alexander Mackenzie Fraser, the colonel of the seventy-eighth Highlanders, and Captain Dick was embarked with the second battalion of that regiment. On the 21st of March, 1807, Alexandria was occupied by the British troops; this was the anniversary of the celebrated battle fought there in 1801, when the gallant General Sir Ralph Abercromby received the wound which terminated his career. A force of fifteen hundred men was afterwards detached against Rosetta, before which place Captain Dick was severely wounded. Egypt was evacuated by the British in September, 1807, and the troops returned to Sicily. Captain Dick was promoted to the rank of Major on the 24th of April, 1808, and was appointed to the forty-second Royal Highlanders on the 14th of July following. Major Dick embarked with the second battalion of the forty-second regiment for the Peninsula in June, 1809, and commanded a light battalion at the battle of Busaco on the 27th of September, 1810, and during the retreat to the lines of Torres Vedras; also in the action at Foz D’Aronce on the 15th of March, 1811, where he was wounded; and at the battle of Fuentes d’Onor on the 3rd and 5th of May following. During the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, which was captured on the 19th of January, 1812, Major Dick served with the second battalion of the forty-second regiment, and also at the third siege of Badajoz, which was taken on the 6th of April following. On the first battalion of the forty-second joining the army in the Peninsula towards the end of April, 1812, the soldiers of the second battalion fit for duty were transferred to the former, and the officers and staff of the latter returned to England to recruit. He commanded a light battalion at the battle of Salamanca on the 22nd of July, 1812. At the storming of Fort St. Michael,