William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford

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William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford GCB GCH (October 2, 1768January 8, 1854), British soldier and politician.

A general in the British Army and a marshal in the Portuguese army, who fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and in 1828 held the office of master-general of the ordnance in Wellington's first ministry.

He was captured at the first Buenos Aires invasion, in 1806, after being defeated by the city defenders.

The most notable action in which Beresford held independent command, during the Peninsular War, occurred in 1811 when a combined Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish army under his command as a Portuguese field-marshal, intercepted a French army commanded by Marshal Nicolas Soult who had been ordered by Marshal Auguste Marmont to move to protect Badajoz. After the bloody Battle of Albuera the French were forced to retreat.

[edit] References

  • ISBN 0-9522930-7-2, The Fatal Hill: The Allied Campaign under Beresford in Southern Spain in 1811, Mark Sunderland, Thompson Publishing, London 2002, Long Review

[edit] External links

Military Offices
Preceded by:
Sir Hildebrand Oakes, Bt
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance
1823–1824
Succeeded by:
Sir George Murray
Preceded by:
The Marquess of Anglesey
Master-General of the Ordnance
1828–1830
Succeeded by:
Sir James Kempt
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by:
New Creation
Viscount Beresford
1823–1854
Succeeded by:
Extinct