Regency Personalities Series-General Richard Airey 1st Baron Airey

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency (I include those who were born before 1811 and who died after 1795), today I continue with one of the many period notables.

General Richard Airey 1st Baron Airey
1803 – 14 September 1881

Richard Airey

Richard Airey 1st Baron Airey was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Airey was the eldest son of Lieutenant General Sir George Airey and his wife Catherine Talbot, daughter of Richard Talbot and Margaret Talbot, 1st Baroness Talbot of Malahide.

Airey was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and entered the army as an ensign of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot in 1821. He became captain in 1825, and served as aide-de-camp on the staff of Sir Frederick Adam in the Ionian Islands (1827–1830) and on that of Lord Aylmer in North America (1830–1832). In 1838 Airey, then a lieutenant colonel, went to the Royal Horse Guards as assistant adjutant-general, where in 1852 he became Military Secretary to the commander-in-chief, Lord Hardinge.

In 1854 he was given a brigade command in the army sent out to the East, from which, however, he was rapidly transferred to the onerous and difficult post of Quartermaster-General under Lord Raglan, in which capacity he served through the campaign in the Crimean War. He was reported upon most favorably by his superiors, Lord Raglan and Sir James Simpson and for his performance was made a major general in December 1854 and was awarded a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). Following Raglan’s instructions, Airey issued the fateful order for the Charge of the Light Brigade. He was also criticised for incompetence in the provision of supplies and transport. Airey demanded an inquiry on his return to England, which took place under Lord Seaton and which cleared him completely, but he never recovered from the effects of persecution from his critics.

In 1855 he returned to London to become Quartermaster-General to the Forces at home. In 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant general, and from 1865 to 1870 he was Governor of Gibraltar, being appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1867. In 1870 he became Adjutant-General to the Forces at headquarters, and in the following year attained the full rank of general. On 29 November 1876, on his retirement, he was elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Airey, of Killingworth in the County of Northumberland. During 1879–1880 he

In 1838, he married his cousin, Harriet Mary Everard Talbot, daughter of James Talbot, 3rd Baron Talbot of Malahide. Their only daughter, Hon. Katherine Margaret Airey (d. 22 May 1896) married Sir Geers Cottrell, 3rd Baronet. Airey died at the house of Lord Wolseley, at Leatherhead, Surrey, when his title became extinct.

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Regency Personalities Series-General Sir William John Codrington

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency (I include those who were born before 1811 and who died after 1795), today I continue with one of the many period notables.

General Sir William John Codrington
26 November 1804 – 6 August 1884

William John Codrington

General Sir William John Codrington was the second son of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, the victor of the Battle of Navarino. He was born on 26 November 1804. He entered the army as an ensign in the Coldstream Guards in 1821, and was promoted lieutenant in 1823, lieutenant and captain in 1826, captain and lieutenant colonel in 1836, and colonel in 1846, and throughout that period had never been on active service.

He found himself at Varna in the summer of 1854, when the English and French armies were encamped there, either as a mere visitor and colonel unattached, as Kinglake says, or in command of the battalion of Coldstream guards, when his promotion to the rank of major general was gazetted on 20 June 1854. As a general officer on the spot, he was requested by Lord Raglan to take command of the 1st Brigade of the Light Division, consisting of the 7th, 23rd, and 33rd regiments, which had become vacant owing to the promotion of Brigadier General Richard Airey to be quartermaster-general in the place of Lord de Ros.

As a general commanding a brigade and absolutely without experience of war, Codrington went into action in his first battle, the Battle of Alma. The light division got too far ahead and fell into confusion in crossing the Alma, and Codrington, seeing that his men could not lie still and be slaughtered by the Russian guns, boldly charged the great redoubt and carried it. But he had soon to fall back before the weight of the Russian column, and ran a risk of being utterly crushed, until the Russian column was broken by the charge of the highland brigade under Sir Colin Campbell. His bravery in this battle showed that Codrington deserved his command, and he again proved his courage at the battle of Inkerman, where he occupied the Victoria Ridge throughout the day, and perpetually sent off all the troops who came up to his help to assist in the real battle on the Inkerman tusk. Sir George Brown, who commanded the light division, was severely wounded in this battle, and after it Codrington assumed the command of the whole division as senior brigadier.

Throughout the winter of 1854–55 he remained in command of the division, and on 5 July 1855 he received the reward of his constancy by being made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. Codrington arranged with General Edwin Markham, commanding the 2nd Division, the attack on the Redan of 8 September, but blame seems to have been showered more freely on Sir James Simpson, who commanded in chief since Lord Raglan’s death, than on the actual contrivers of that fatal attack. On 11 November 1855, for some reason that has never been properly explained, Codrington succeeded Sir James Simpson as Commander-in-Chief instead of Sir Colin Campbell, who had much better claims to the succession, and he commanded the force occupying Sebastopol, for there was no more fighting, until the final evacuation of the Crimea on 12 July 1856.

On his return to England, Codrington was promoted lieutenant general, appointed colonel of the 54th Foot, and in 1857 was elected MP for Greenwich, in the liberal interest. From 1859 to 1865, he was Governor of Gibraltar. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the latter year, and was promoted general in 1863. In 1860, he was transferred to the colonelcy of the 23rd Foot, and in 1875 to that of the Coldstream guards, the regiment in which he had risen.

He remained an active politician to the end of his life, and contested Westminster in 1874, and Lewes in 1880, in the liberal interest. He saw no active service except in 1854 and 1855, and yet he was twice offered the rank of field marshal, which he refused. He wore a medal and four clasps for the Crimea, and was a Commander of the Legion of Honour, a Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of Savoy, and a member of the first class of Order of the Medjidie.

Codrington died on 6 August 1884, in his eightieth year, at Danmore Cottage, Heckfield, Winchfield in Hampshire.

In politics, Codrington was a Liberal supporter of Viscount Palmerston. He particularly liked his leader’s foreign policy. He was in favour of “progressive reform” and “civil and religious liberty”, but did not support the secret ballot.

He was Member of Parliament for Greenwich between a by-election in February 1857 and 1859. He contested Westminster in 1874 and Lewes in 1880.

In 1868 he stood for the seat of Greenwich, replacing fellow Liberal Sir William Bright who had declined to stand. When William Gladstone failed to take the seat of Lancashire, Codrington himself stood aside to allow him to represent Greenwich. [Kentish Mercury, September 12, 1868.]

In 1836 he married Mary Ames and together they went on to have two sons and two daughters. His son, Alfred, also joined the Army, commanding a Home Service army during the First World War; his daughter Mary married William Earle, an Army officer killed commanding the forces the Battle of Kirbekan. The other two children died young.

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Regency Personalities Series-George Bingham 3rd Earl of Lucan

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Field Marshall George Charles Bingham 3rd Earl of Lucan
16 April 1800 – 10 November 1888

George Bingham

Field Marshall George Charles Bingham 3rd Earl of Lucan was the first son of Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan, an Anglo-Irish peer, and Elizabeth Bingham (née Belasyse), Lord Bingham (as he was styled up until late June 1839) attended Westminster School but left formal education to be commissioned as an ensign in the 6th Regiment of Foot on 29 August 1816. He transferred to the 11th Light Dragoons on 24 December 1818.

Lord Bingham became a lieutenant in the 8th Regiment of Foot on 20 January 1820, a captain in the 74th Regiment of Foot on 16 May 1822 and was promoted to major, unattached, on 23 June 1825. He transferred to the 17th Lancers on 1 December 1825 and became commanding officer of the regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel on 9 November 1826; he lavished such expense on his officers’ uniforms and horses that the officers became known as “Bingham’s Dandies.” He was also elected as MP for County Mayo in 1826 and held that seat until 1830. During the Russo-Turkish War, which began in 1828, he acted observer with the Imperial Russian Army.

Lord Bingham succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Lucan in the Peerage of Ireland on 30 June 1839 and, having become an Irish Representative Peer in June 1840 and having been promoted to colonel on 23 November 1841, he became Lord Lieutenant of Mayo in 1845. During the Great Famine in the late 1840s he acted in a sufficiently clumsy and insensitive manner, by introducing mass evictions from villages such as Ballinrobe, that he earned the hatred of many of the local people and became known as “The Exterminator”. He was promoted to major general on 11 November 1851.

At the outbreak of the Crimean War Lord Lucan applied for a post and was made commander of the Cavalry Division. His brother-in-law, the 7th Earl of Cardigan, was one of his subordinates, commanding the Light Brigade – an unfortunate choice as the two men heartily detested each other. Promoted to brevet lieutenant general on 18 August 1854, he was present at the Battle of Alma in September 1854 but, on the orders of the Army commander, Lord Raglan, he held his division in reserve. At the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, Lucan received an order from Raglan and in turn ordered Cardigan to lead the fateful Charge of the Light Brigade leading to some 278 British casualties. As Lucan brought the Heavy Brigade forward in support he was lightly wounded in the leg. Raglan blamed Lucan for the loss, “you have lost the light brigade”, and censured him in despatches. Although Lucan complained against this censure, as the relationship between the army commander and the cavalry commander had clearly broken down, he was recalled to England, where he returned at the beginning of March 1855.

On his arrival Lucan’s demand for a court-martial was declined and instead he defended himself with a speech to the House of Lords on 19 March 1855, blaming Raglan and his deceased aide-de-camp, Captain Louis Nolan. This tactic appears to have been successful as he was subsequently appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 5 July 1855, and Colonel of the 8th Light Dragoons, who had charged with the Light Brigade, on 17 November 1855.

A significant contribution was made by Lucan to Parliament when he produced a solution to the problem of admitting Jews to Parliament. Prior to this, distinguished Jews had declined to take the oath “on the true faith of a Christian” and having not been sworn in as required by statute, were refused voting rights although having been elected an MP. Lucan proposed, by way of a compromise, that each House could decide and modify its own oath. The House of Lords, who had long opposed the admission of Jews, agreed to this. A prominent Jew, Lionel Nathan Rothschild, was thus allowed to enter the House of Commons and was sworn in on 26 July 1858.

Although Lucan never again saw active duty he was promoted to lieutenant general on 24 December 1858, and, having become colonel of the 1st Regiment of Life Guards on 27 February 1865, he was to promoted to general on 28 August 1865 and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1869. He formally retired in October 1877, but after some lobbying he was promoted to field marshal on 21 June 1887. He died at 13 South Street, Park Lane, London, on 10 November 1888 and was buried at Laleham in Middlesex.

In 1829 Bingham married Lady Anne Brudenell, seventh daughter of the 6th Earl of Cardigan; they had six children.

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Regency Personalities Series-General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset
19 December 1776 – 1 September 1842

Robert Edward Henry Somerset

General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset was the third son of the 5th duke of Beaufort, and elder brother of Lord Raglan.

Joining the 15th Light Dragoons in 1793, he became captain in the following year, and received a majority after serving as aide-de-camp to the Duke of York in the Dutch expedition of 1799. At the end of 1800 he became a lieutenant-colonel, and in 1801 received the command of the 4th Dragoons. From 1799 to 1802 he represented the Monmouth Boroughs in the House of Commons, from 1803 to 1823 sat for Gloucestershire and from 1834 to 1837 was MP for Cirencester.

He commanded his regiment at the battles of Talavera and Buçaco, and in 1810 received a colonelcy and the appointment of ADC to the king. In 1811, along with the 3rd Dragoon Guards, the 4th Dragoons fought a notable cavalry action at Usagre, and in 1812 Lord Edward Somerset was engaged in the great charge of Le Marchant’s heavy cavalry at Salamanca. His conduct on this occasion (he captured five guns at the head of a single squadron) won him further promotion, and he made the remaining campaigns as a major-general at the head of the Hussar brigade (7th, 10th and 15th Hussars).

At Orthes he won further distinction by his pursuit of the enemy; he was made KCB, and received the thanks of parliament. At Waterloo he was in command of the Household Cavalry Brigade, which distinguished itself not less by its stern and patient endurance of the enemy’s fire than by its celebrated charge on the cuirassiers of Milhaud’s corps.

The brigadier was particularly mentioned in Wellington’s despatches, and received the thanks of parliament as well as the Army Gold Cross with one clasp for his services at Talavera, Salamanca, Vitoria, Orthez, and Toulouse; the Maria Theresa and other much-prized foreign orders.

He died a general and GCB in 1842.

The ‘Lord Somerset Monument’ stands high on the Cotswold Edge at Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire (grid reference ST772878), near the ancestral home of Badminton, Gloucestershire. It was erected in 1846.

On 17 October 1805 he married Lady Louisa Augusta Courtenay (1781 – 8 February 1825), a younger daughter of William Courtenay, 8th Earl of Devon, with whom he had several children, three sons and five daughters:

• Robert Henry Somerset (1806–1807)
• Louisa Isabella Somerset (1807–1888)
• Frances Caroline Somerset, later Mrs Theophilus Clive (1808–1890) who married 1840 Theophilus Clive (d. 1875).
• Blanche Somerset, later Mrs Charles Locke (1811–1879) who married 1845, Rev. Charles Courtenay Locke (d. 1848)
• Matilda Elizabeth Somerset, later Mrs Horace Marryat (1815-3 April 1905) (portrait 1843) who married 1842 Horace Marryat
• Lt-Gen. Edward Arthur Somerset (1817–1886) married Agatha Miles (1827 – 1912), daughter of Sir William Miles, Bt
• Georgina Emily Somerset (1819-?) who married 1852 Hon Robert Neville Lawley (who died 1891)
• Augustus Charles Stapleton Somerset (1821–1854)

And Coming on April 1st, 2015

Beaux Ballrooms and Battles anthology, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the victory at Waterloo in story.

Looks good, huh? The talented writer and digital artist, Aileen Fish created this.

It will be available digitally for $.99 and then after a short period of time sell for the regular price of $4.99

The Trade Paperback version will sell for $12.99

My story in the anthology is entitled: Not a Close Run Thing at All, which of course is a play on the famous misquote attributed to Arthur Wellesley, “a damn close-run thing” which really was “It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”

Samantha, Lady Worcester had thought love was over for her, much like the war should have been. The Bastille had fallen shortly after she had been born. Her entire life the French and their Revolution had affected her and all whom she knew. Even to having determined who she married, though her husband now had been dead and buried these eight years.

Yet now Robert Barnes, a major-general in command of one of Wellington’s brigades, had appeared before her, years since he had been forgotten and dismissed. The man she had once loved, but because he had only been a captain with no fortune, her father had shown him the door.

With a battle at hand, she could not let down the defenses that surrounded her heart. Could she?

As her father’s hostess, she had travelled with him to Brussels where he served with the British delegation. Duty had taken her that night to the Duchess of Richmond’s ball. The last man she ever expected to see was Robert, who as a young captain of few prospects, had offered for her, only to be turned out by her father so that she could make an alliance with a much older, and better positioned (wealthy), aristocrat.Now, their forces were sure to engage Napoleon and the resurgent Grande Armée. Meeting Robert again just before he was to be pulled into such a horrific maelstrom surely was Fate’s cruelest trick ever. A fate her heart could not possibly withstand.

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Regency Personalities Series-Field Marshal Lord FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron Raglan

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Field Marshal Lord FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron Raglan
30 September 1788 – 29 June 1855

FitzRoy Somerset

Field Marshal Lord FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron Raglan was a British Army officer. As a junior officer he served in the Peninsular War and the Hundred Days, latterly as military secretary to the Duke of Wellington. He also took part in politics as Tory Member of Parliament for Truro before becoming Master-General of the Ordnance. He became commander of the British troops sent to the Crimea in 1854: while his primary objective was to defend Constantinople he was ordered to besiege the Russian Port of Sevastopol. After an early success at the Battle of Alma, a failure to deliver orders with sufficient clarity caused the fateful Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. Despite further success at the Battle of Inkerman, a piecemeal allied assault on Sevastopol in June 1855 was a complete failure. Somerset died later that month from a mixture of dysentery and clinical depression.

Born the eighth and youngest son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort by Elizabeth Somerset (daughter of Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen), Somerset was educated at Westminster School and was commissioned as a cornet in the 4th Light Dragoons on 16 June 1804.

Promoted to lieutenant on 1 June 1805, Somerset accompanied Sir Arthur Paget on his visit to Sultan Selim III of the Ottoman Empire, who had been aligning himself too closely with France, in 1807. He became a captain in the 43rd Regiment of Foot on 5 May 1808 shortly before his appointment as aide-de-camp to Sir Arthur Wellesley in July 1808. Somerset accompanied Wellesley’s Army when it was sent to Portugal later that month. Somerset fought at the Second Battle of Porto in May 1809, the Battle of Talavera in July 1809 and the Battle of Bussaco (where he was wounded) in September 1810. He was appointed acting military secretary to Wellington in November 1810 and fought with him at the Battle of Pombal in March 1811, the Battle of Sabugal in April 1811 and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811. Promoted to brevet major on 9 June 1811, he also took part in the Battle of El Bodón in September 1811. He specially distinguished himself at the storming of Badajoz in March 1812 by being the first to mount the breach and by helping to secure the surrender of the French Governor and was duly promoted to lieutenant colonel on 27 April 1812.

Somerset went on to fight with Wellington at the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812, the Siege of Burgos in September 1812 and the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813 as well as the Siege of San Sebastián in July 1813, the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813 and the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813. They also fought together at the Battle of the Nive in December 1813, the Battle of Orthez in February 1814 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. Following Wellington’s appointment as British Ambassador during the short period of Bourbon rule, Somerset assumed a role as his secretary at the Embassy on 5 July 1814. Somerset transferred to the 1st Guards on 25 July 1814 and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1815.

Somerset also saw action during the Hundred Days: he served on Wellington’s staff at the Battle of Quatre Bras in June 1815 and at the Battle of Waterloo in later that month (where he had to have his right arm amputated and then demanded his arm back so he could retrieve the ring that his wife had given him). Promoted to colonel and appointed an aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent on 28 August 1815, he was appointed a Knight of the Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph on 3 October 1815. He remained with the Army of Occupation in France until May 1816 when he returned to the post of secretary at the British Embassy in Paris.

Somerset was elected Tory Member of Parliament for Truro in 1818 and became Wellington’s secretary in the latter’s new capacity as Master-General of the Ordnance in 1819. Somerset lost his seat at the general election in 1820 but, having been promoted to major-general on 27 May 1825, regained his seat in Parliament in 1826. Following Wellington’s appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in January 1827 Somerset became Military Secretary in August 1827. He stood down from Parliament in 1829 and was promoted to lieutenant-general on 28 June 1838. Advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 24 September 1852, he became Master-General of the Ordnance on 30 September 1852 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Raglan of Raglan in the County of Monmouthshire on 11 October 1852.

Somerset became commander of the British troops sent to the Crimea with the temporary rank of full general on 21 February 1854 and was promoted to the substantive rank of full general on 20 June 1854. While Somerset’s primary objective was to defend Constantinople he was ordered by the Duke of Newcastle, who was at the time Secretary of State for War, to besiege the Russian Port of Sevastopol “unless it could not be undertaken with a reasonable prospect of success”. An Anglo-French force under the joint command of Somerset and General Jacques St. Arnaud defeated General Alexander Menshikov’s Russian army at the Battle of Alma in September 1854.

At the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, Somerset issued an order to the Earl of Lucan, his cavalry commander, who in turn ordered the Earl of Cardigan, a subordinate commander who happened to be Lucan’s brother-in-law and who detested him, to lead the fateful Charge of the Light Brigade leading to some 278 British casualties. Despite an indecisive result at Balaclava the British and French allied army gained a victory at the Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and Somerset was promoted to the rank of field marshal on 5 November 1854. He was also awarded the Ottoman Empire Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class on 15 May 1855.

Somerset was blamed by the press and the government for the sufferings of the British soldiers in the terrible Crimean winter during the Siege of Sevastopol owing to shortages of food and clothing although this, in part, was the fault of the home authorities who failed to provide adequate logistical support. A piecemeal allied assault on Sevastopol on 18 June 1855 was a complete failure. The anxieties of the siege began to seriously undermine Somerset’s health and he died from a mixture of dysentery and clinical depression on 29 June 1855. His body was brought home and interred at St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton.

Emily Harriet Wellesley-Pole, Lady FitzRoy Somerset

Somerset had also served as honorary colonel of the 53rd Regiment of Foot and then as honorary colonel of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues). Cefntilla Court, Llandenny was built as a lasting memorial to Somerset in 1858: an inscription over the porch there reads:

“This house with 238 acres of land was purchased by 1623 of the friends, admirers and comrades in arms of the late Field Marshal Lord Raglan GCB and presented by them to his son and his heirs for ever in a lasting memorial of affectionate regard and respect.”

A blue plaque was erected outside Somerset’s house at Stanhope Gate in London in 1911.

On 6 August 1814 Somerset married Lady Emily Harriet Wellesley-Pole (daughter of the William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington which makes Somerset the nephew by marriage of the Duke of Wellington). They had two sons:

• Arthur William FitzRoy Somerset (6 May 1816 – 21 December 1845)
• Richard Henry Fitzroy Somerset, 2nd Baron Raglan (24 May 1817 – May 1884)

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