Lord William Paulet

Field Marshal Lord William Paulet, GCB (7 July 1804 – 9 May 1893) was a British Army officer.

Paulet was born at Amport House, Andover and was the fourth son of Charles Paulet, 13th Marquess of Winchester and his wife, Anne "née" Andrews. After attending Eton College (his name appears in the school lists of 1820), he was appointed an ensign in the 85th (Duke of York's Own) Light Infantry on 1 February 1821. On 23 August 1822, he was made a lieutenant in the 7th Royal Fusiliers; he purchased an unattached company on 12 February 1825 and exchanged to the 21st Royal North British Fusiliers. On 10 September 1830, he became a major in the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry), and a lieutenant colonel on 21 April 1843, serving with the regiment at Gibraltar, in the West Indies, North America, and at home until 31 December 1848, when he exchanged to half pay unattached. He became a brevet colonel on 20 June 1854, went to the Crimea as assistant adjutant general of the cavalry division, under Lord Lucan, and was present at the Alma, Balaclava (where his hat was carried off by roundshot), Inkerman, and Sevastopol. On 23 November 1854, Lord Raglan appointed him to command 'on the Bosporus, at Gallipoli, and the Dardanelles', where the overcrowded hospitals (in which Florence Nightingale and her nurses had begun work three weeks before) needed an experienced officer in overall command. He held this post until after the fall of Sevastopol, when he succeeded to the command of the light division in the Crimea, which he retained until the allied evacuation. He was appointed a CB (July 1855), awarded the Légion d'honneur, and the Order of the Mejidiye (third class).

Paulet was one of the first officers appointed to a command at Aldershot camp, where he commanded the 1st brigade from 1856 to 1860, becoming a major general on 13 June 1858. He commanded the south-western district, with headquarters at Portsmouth, from 1860 to 1865. He was promoted to a KCB in 1865, and a lieutenant general on 8 December 1867; he was adjutant general of the forces from 1865 to 1870, and was promoted to a GCB in 1870, general on 7 October 1874, and field marshal on 10 July 1886. After a short period as colonel of the 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot, Paulet was appointed, on 9 April 1864, colonel of his former regiment, the 68th, in the interest of which he never ceased to exert his influence. He died, unmarried, at his London residence, 18 St James's Square, Westminster, on 9 May 1893.

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