Major Fortye joined the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot during French Revolutionary War. Major Fortye served in Holland (1794),[5] Africa and America; also in Egypt, 1801. He lost his arm in the Battle of Mandora, for which he received a pension.[6]
He then led various Veteran Battalions: 1st Royal Veteran Battalion (by 1805);[7] 6th Royal Veteran Battalion (by April 1807);[8][9] 3rd Royal Veteran Battalion;[10] 7th Royal Veteran Battalion (by 1 Nov. 1819)[11][12][13]
He married Jane Athole Gordon Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, of Melfort, niece of Colin Campbell (British Army officer, born 1776)) at Fort George (1808)[99]
^Before 1806, enlistment was for life: it was ended only by being killed or by being so broken and worn out that the soldier became a Chelsea Pensioner, either at the Royal Hospital or as an out-pensioner living at home. Between 1804 and 1820, 13 royal garrison battalions were raised, taking into service army pensioners and invalids. They enabled the more able-bodied soldiers to do the fighting.