Lord Edward Somerset

General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset GCB (19 December 1776 – 1 September 1842) was a British soldier.

He 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 Light Dragoons. From 1799 to 1802 he represented the Monmouth Boroughs in the House of Commons, and from 1803 to 1823 sat for Gloucestershire.

On October 17, 1805 he married Louisa Augusta Courtenay (d. February 8, 1825), daughter of William Courtenay, 8th Earl of Devon, with whom he had one child, a son:
* Edward Arthur Somerset (February 2 1817 – March 12 1886), who gained the rank of Lieutenant-General and on September 13 1849 married to Agatha Miles (b. 1827, d. August 12 1912), daughter of Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet, with whom he had eight daughters and one son:
** Evelyn Somerset (November 20 1857 – July 1 1883), who was married — as his first wife — to George Coulfeild Prideaux Browne (December 16 1855 – July 21 1906), grandson of the 2nd Baron Kilmaine, on September 7 1882, with whom she had one child, a daughter. She died in childbirth.
** Edward William Henry Somerset (January 25 1866 – March 20 1890) who served as a Lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade and died unmarried.

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 Light 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 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 (gbmapping|ST772878), near the ancestral home of Badminton, Gloucestershire. It was erected in 1846.

References

*1911

External links

* [http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/British_cavalry.htm British cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars]