Henry William Paget Anglesey Biography

Dromo's Den

ANGLESEY, Henry William Paget, First Marquis of (1768-1854). A British general and statesman. He was educated at Oxford and entered Parliament in 1790. He commanded a volunteer corps in Flanders and acquired a high reputation as a cavalry officer in the Peninsular War. At the battle of Waterloo, where he commanded the British cavalry, he lost a leg. On his return to England he received a vote of thanks from Parliament and was made Marquis of Anglesey. In 1828 he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at a period when that country was greatly agitated over the question of Catholic emancipation. This he at first opposed, but afterward advocated it, and in consequence was recalled by Wellington in 1829. He was again appointed to the same office under Lord Grey's administration in 1830; but his coercive measures destroyed his popularity, and he resigned his position in 1833. He founded the Irish Board of Education. In 1846 he was made field marshal.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. I (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 646.