Raglan, Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron

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Raglan, Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron (1788–1855). Lord Fitzroy Somerset, eighth son of the duke of Beaufort, was appointed aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future duke of Wellington, in 1808. He accompanied the duke throughout his campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula (1808–14) and was badly wounded at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Despite this, he remained on Wellington's staff. In 1852—the year of the duke's death—Somerset was created Baron Raglan, and two years later given command of British forces in the war against Russia. When those forces invaded the Crimea in September 1854, it soon became apparent that Raglan was not suited to high command, for although promoted to field marshal, he was widely criticized for orders leading to the Charge of the Light Brigade’ at Balaclava on 25 October. He died of dysentery in the Crimea on 25 June 1855.

John Pimlott