The two most prominent of the Artillery officers present at Minden were Captain Phillips, who commanded, and Captain Macbean; and both deserve more than passing notice. The former joined the Regiment as a cadet gunner in 1746, became Lieutenant-Fireworker in the following year, Second Lieutenant in 1755, and First Lieutenant in 1756. When holding this rank, he was appointed to the command of a company of miners raised in 1756 for duty in Minorca, but no longer required after the capitulation of Port Mahon. Instead of disbanding them, however, the Board of Ordnance converted them into a company of Artillery, and added them to the Regiment. Greatly to the indignation of the officers of a corps, whose promotion then, as now, was by seniority, Lieutenant Phillips was transferred with the company, as a Captain, without having passed through the intermediate grade of Captain-Lieutenant. If the end ever justifies the means, this job on the part of Sir John Ligonier, then Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, was justified by Captain Phillips' subsequent career both in Germany and in America. A minor point in connection with this officer is worthy of mention. He was the first to originate a band in the Royal Artillery—not a permanent one, however—the present Band only dating as far back as 1771, when the 4th Battalion was formed, and with it the nucleus of what has developed into probably the best military band in the world. Captain Phillips died—a general officer—in Virginia, in the year 1781, from illness contracted on active service. Forbes Macbean, the next most worthy of mention, began his career in the Regiment, as a Cadet Matross, and died in 1800 as Colonel-Commandant of the Invalid Battalion. He was present at Fontenoy, as has already been mentioned; in Germany during the campaign of which Minden was part; in Portugal, where he reached the rank of Inspector-General of the Portuguese Artillery; and in Canada, in the years 1778-9, as commanding the Royal Artillery. He is mentioned in Kane's List, as having been the second officer in the Regiment who obtained the blue ribbon of Science, the Fellowship of the Royal Society—an honour borne by a good many in the Regiment now, and valued by every one who appreciates its position as a scientific corps. The battle of Minden was the first during the operations in Germany of the Allied Army under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, at which special notice was made of the English troops. These operations commenced in 1757, the year in which Prince Ferdinand assumed the command of the Allied Army, and terminated in 1762. On the 8th March, 1758, Prince Ferdinand captured Minden from the French—a town situated on the river Weser, about 45 miles W.S.W. from Hanover; and retained possession of it until July, 1759, when it was retaken from General Zastrow and his Hessian troops by the French under M. de Broglio.