 His father, an Indian officer, led, with three other lieutenants, the storming of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799, and returned to England in 1809, after fifteen years' severe service.George was born into a Protestant Ulster-Scots family at Trincomalee, Ceylon, on 17 March 1804, and was later educated at Foyle College in Derry.Both his parents were from Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, his father being from Coleraine in County Londonderry while his mother, Letitia Knox, was from County Donegal.