Chief, he travelled by the Holy Land and Bagdad to India to rejoin the THIRTY-FIRST regiment. An account of these travels, in two volumes, was published in 1836, under the title of “_Adventures during a Journey overland to India_” which also passed through two editions. On the 24th of November, 1835, he was promoted Major in the THIRTY-FIRST regiment. Emulous of his father’s skill as an officer of Light Infantry, he diligently cultivated that branch of the service, availing himself of the opportunity of practising manœuvres in the field afforded to those serving in India, by the collection of large bodies of men at the principal stations. In 1840, his health being affected by the climate, Lord Hill considerately forwarded to him, through the General commanding in India, leave of absence, of which he declined to avail himself, as he thought his services might be useful in the then state of India. On the 23rd of November 1840, he was entrusted to take from Chinsurah a large body of recruits, about twenty young officers, and about twenty-two young women and as many children, to their destinations where they arrived in health, and without complaint of any sort against them in the districts through which they passed. The Commander-in-Chief in India thus expressed his thanks for this unprecedented success in such duty. “The Commander-in-Chief takes an early opportunity of conveying his best thanks to Major Skinner, of Her Majesty’s THIRTY-FIRST regiment, for the forethought, caution, and exertion shown by him in marching a body of 489 recruits from Chinsurah to Cawnpore and Agra, without the loss of a man, except one accidentally drowned while bathing in the Soane. His Excellency requests that Major Skinner will report to him in what degree the medical officers contributed to this very desirable result, in order that their skill and attention may be duly appreciated and remembered.” Major Skinner, for this service, was rewarded with the appointment of Commandant of the Convalescent Depôt at Landour. Upon the march of the army under Major-General Pollock to Affghanistan, where Captain James Skinner, of the sixty-first Bengal Native Infantry, was reported to be a prisoner, having been wounded on the retreat from Cabool, Major Skinner resigned at once his lucrative and pleasant post, and by forced journeys, joined the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, in February 1842; his anxiety for his brother, whom he had hoped to be in part the means of rescuing, only appeased by the distressing certainty of his violent and untimely death. Major Skinner rendered very important services at the battle of _Mazeena_, for which he was particularly thanked by Brigadier Monteath; Major Skinner’s account of the transaction was also included in the despatches published in the “London Gazette.”