“1st Marquess of Anglesey” Henry Paget Hand Signed Free Frank For Sale
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“1st Marquess of Anglesey” Henry Paget Hand Signed Free Frank:
$279.99
Up for sale the “1st Marquess of Anglesey” Henry Paget Hand Signed Free Frank.
ES-7280
Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of 1768 – 29 April 1854), styled Lord Paget between 1784 and
1812 and known as the Earl of Uxbridge between 1812 and 1815,
was a British Army officer and politician.
After serving as a Member for Milborne Port,
he took part in the Flanders Campaign and then commanded the cavalry
for Sir John Moore's
army in Spain during the Peninsular War; his cavalry showed distinct superiority over
their French counterparts at the Battle of Sahagún and
at the Battle of Benavente, where
he defeated the elite chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard.
During the Hundred Days he led the charge of the
heavy cavalry against Comte d'Erlon's
column at the Battle of Waterloo. At the
end of the battle he lost part of one leg to a
cannonball. In later life he served twice as Master-General of the Ordnance and
twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
He was born Henry Bayley, the eldest son of Henry Bayley-Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge and his wife
Jane (née Champagné), daughter of the Very Reverend Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise, Ireland. His father assumed the surname Paget in 1770.
He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. Paget
entered parliament at the 1790 general election as
member for Carnarvon, a seat he held until the 1796 general election when
his brother Edward was elected unopposed in his
place. He then represented Milborne his
seat in 1804 by appointment as Steward of the Chiltern
Hundreds, and again from the 1806 election to January 1810, when he took the Chiltern
Hundreds again. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars,
Paget raised a regiment of Staffordshire volunteers and was given the temporary
rank 1793. As the 80th Regiment of Foot, the unit took part in the Flanders Campaign of 1794 under Paget's command. He was formally commissioned into the British Army as a lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of Foot on 14 April 1795 and received rapid promotion, first to captain in
the 23rd Regiment of Foot,
also on 14 April 1795, then to major in
the 65th Regiment of Foot, on 19 May 1795 and then to lieutenant-colonel in the 80th
Regiment of Foot on 30 May 1795. He transferred to the command of the 16th Light Dragoons on
15 June 1795. Promoted to colonel on 3 May 1796, he was given command of
the 7th Light Dragoons on
6 April 1797. He commanded a cavalry brigade at the Battle of Castricum in
October 1799 during the Anglo-Russian invasion of
Holland. Paget was promoted to major-general on 29 April 1802 and lieutenant-general on
25 April 1808. He commanded the cavalry for Sir John Moore's
army in Spain; his cavalry showed distinct superiority over their
French counterparts at the Battle of Sahagún in
December 1808, where his men captured two French lieutenant colonels and so
mauled the French chasseurs that they ceased to exist
as a viable regiment. He also commanded the cavalry at the Battle of Benavente later
in December 1808, where he defeated the elite chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard, and
then commanded the cavalry again during the Retreat to Corunna in January 1809. This was his
last service in the Peninsular War, because
his liaison with Lady Charlotte, the wife of Henry Wellesley,
afterwards Lord Cowley, made it impossible subsequently for him to brother. His only war service from 1809 to 1815 was in the
disastrous Walcheren expedition in
1809, during which he commanded an infantry division. In 1810 he was divorced and then married Lady
Charlotte, who had been divorced from her husband around the same time. He inherited the title of Earl of Uxbridge on his father's death in March 1812 and
was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of
the Bath on 4 January 1815. During the Hundred Days he was appointed cavalry commander in Belgium, under the still resentful eye of Wellington. He fought at the Battle of Quatre Bras on
16 June 1815 and at the Battle of Waterloo two
days later, when he led the spectacular charge of the British heavy cavalry
against Comte d'Erlon's
column which checked and in part routed the French Army. One of the last cannon
shots fired that day hit Paget in the right leg, necessitating
its amputation. According to anecdote, he was close to
Wellington when his leg was hit, and exclaimed, "By God, sir, I've lost my
leg!" — to which Wellington replied, "By God, sir, so you have!" According to his aide-de-camp, Thomas Wildman, during the amputation Paget smiled and said,
"I have had a pretty long run. I have been a beau these 47 years and it
would not be fair to cut the young men out any longer." While Paget had an articulated artificial limb fitted, his amputated leg meanwhile had a somewhat macabre
after-life as a tourist attraction in the village of Waterloo in Belgium, to which it had been removed and
where it was later interred. Paget was created Marquess of Anglesey on
4 July 1815. A 27-metre (89 ft) high monument to his heroism (designed
by Thomas Harrison) was
erected at Llanfairpwllgwyngyll on Anglesey, close to Paget's country retreat at Plas Newydd, in 1816.[23] He was also appointed a Knight of the Garter on
13 March 1818[24] and promoted to full general on 12 August 1819.