Lord George Paget

"a soldier"
Paget as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, October 1877

General Lord George Augustus Frederick Paget KCB (16 March 1818 – 30 June 1880), was a British soldier during the Crimean War and took part in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade.

Background

Paget was the youngest son of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey by his second wife Lady Charlotte, daughter of Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan.

Military career

Paget served in the Crimean War and fought at Alma and Balaclava in command of the 4th (The Queen's Own) Light Dragoons. He is frequently quoted for his references to the Russian engagement in Balaklava on the Crimean Peninsula: "Every fool at the outposts, who fancies he hears something, has only to make a row, and there we all are, Generals and all... Well I suppose 500 false alarms are better than one surprise". This quote was supposedly written just before the Russians surprised the camp. He is famous for having charged with the Light Brigade while smoking a cheroot (a type of cigar favored by soldiers who served in India).

Member of Parliament

Apart from his military career Paget sat as Member of Parliament for Beaumaris between 1847 and 1857. He was made a KCB in 1870.

Marriages

Paget married firstly his first cousin Agnes Charlotte, daughter of Sir Arthur Paget, in 1854. They had two sons. After her death in March 1858, just six days after the birth of her youngest child, he married secondly Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Fieschi Heneage, in 1861. Paget died in June 1880, aged 62. Louisa Elizabeth married secondly Arthur Capell, 6th Earl of Essex, in 1881. She died in January 1914.

References

• www.victorianweb.org

ISBN 0-7522-1184-6

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord George Paget