An Officer and a Gentleman Trivia Quiz

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS, was born in 1769. The exact date of his birth is unsure, but it is usually given as most probably on 1 May, the day before his baptism in Dublin, which was recorded officially. He was the sixth of nine children born to Anne Wellesley, Countess of Mornington and Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, members of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy.

He attended several schools for his early education, depending on which of the family's homes they were residing in at the time. In 1781, shortly after his father's death, he enrolled at Eton, where he studied until 1784. He probably never made the statement often attributed to him, that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton", for several reasons. First and foremost, Eton had no playing fields when he was there. Secondly, he seems to have been very lonely there, and not to have experienced the camaraderie and sense of team play implied in the statement.

In 1785, his poor academic performance and the family's financial difficulties led to his departure, and his mother moved to Brussels. He enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation, and developed both strong competence in riding and fluency in speaking French.

His brother organised a plan to have Arthur commissioned by his friend Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, and at the time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. On 7 March 1787 he was commissioned as an ensign in the 73rd Regiment of Foot, and started his military career.

His brother continued to use his influential friends to ensure swift promotion, and Arthur was promoted to lieutenant Christmas Day of that same year, and transferred to Dublin, where his duties as aide-de-camp to the new Lieutenant Governor were mostly social.

His military career then involved a number of transfers of regiment, promotion to captain in early 1791, and his purchase of the rank of major in 1793, followed a few months later (with financial assistance from his brother) by a lieutenant-colonelcy.

In 1797 Wellesley was posted to India, where he participated in a number of military campaigns, starting with the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798-9), which led to his appointment as Governor of Mysore. It was around this time that he changed the spelling of his surname from Wesley to Wellesley.

His skill in handling his troops gained him further promotion, to major-general, in 1902. As commander of the British forces in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, he distinguished himself in the Battle of Assay (3 October), which he always considered to have been his best battle, notwithstanding the fame that was to come at Waterloo.

When his older brother's term as Governor-General of India expired in 1805, the brothers returned to England, both significantly wealthier than when they first went to India.

In 1793, one of the factors that caused Arthur Wesley (as he then still spelled the family name) to throw himself into a military career was the fact that his proposal to Kitty Pakenham was rejected by her brother because of his poor prospects. His return from India changed all that, and the couple were married in St George's Church, Dublin on 10 April 1806, in a ceremony over which his brother Gerald officiated.

It was not a happy marriage, with his absence on extended military campaigns placing strains that his infidelity did not ease.

They did, however, have two children: Arthur, born in 1807, was later to be the 2nd Duke of Wellington, while Charles, born in 1808, had a career in the military and in politics.

In 1808 Wellesley headed to the Iberian Peninsula, where battles were being fought against Napoleon Bonaparte. He succeeded in defeating the French at the Battle of Roliça and the Battle of Vimeiro, before being relieved of his command and recalled to England over an impropriety of conduct (of which he was cleared, and sent back to the front).

After winning the Second Battle of Porto, which secured Portugal from the French, he advanced into Spain, where he was victorious in the Battle of Talavera (27-28 July, 1809). Victory at the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813) saw him promoted to field marshal on 21 June.

Arthur Wellesley's string of successes in the Peninsular War, along with reporting of his personal leadership style, made him a popular hero in England, and he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Wellington in the county of Somerset on 26 August 1809, following the Battle of Talavera. this was followed by his designation as Earl of Wellington (22 February 1812) and Marquess of Wellington (18 August 1812). Following the defeat and abdication of Napoleon in 1814, he returned to England, and was made Duke of Wellington on 3 May.

He was appointed Ambassador to France, and acted as first plenipotentiary (meaning he had full powers to represent the sovereign) at the Congress of Vienna, organised to work out the balance of power in a post-Napoleonic Europe.

Then Napoleon escaped from Elba, and battles recommenced.

The Hundred Days is a term used to refer to the period of battles following Napoleon's escape from Elba in February 1815. The Hundred Days are counted from Napoleon's entry into Paris on 20 March, ending with his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June of that year.

The Duke of Wellington commanded an army of combined forces from Great Britain (about a third of whom were from Ireland), Germany and the Netherlands. After an indecisive battle at Quatre Bras, he moved his troops to a spot he had selected earlier, the north ridge of a valley just south of the town of Waterloo. It was a good choice, and with the added Prussian soldiers under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Napoleon was defeated. (This is not the place to discuss the controversies that have reigned in military circles about the relative significance of the contributions of the two groups.) This final defeat and abdication of Napoleon was made official in the Treaty of Paris, signed in November of 1815.

You may well be surprised to hear that the Battle of Waterloo occurred twelve years before Wellington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, but that designation was not made until 22 January 1827. Along the way, he had returned to active political life, becoming Master-General of the Ordnance in 1818; Governor of Plymouth in 1819, and Constable of the Tower of London in 1827.

Such was Wellington's influence in the Tory party that he was able to resign his position as Commander-in-Chief of the army, and take up the position of Prime Minister in 1828, with William Peel leading the party in the House of Commons. Among his accomplishments as prime minister were the establishment of King's College London and the restoration of (most) civil rights to Roman Catholics. They lost power in 1830, and when the Tories regained power in 1834, it was Robert Peel who was made prime minister, with Wellington as Leader of the House of Lords. He served in this position until his retirement in 1846.

I felt it would have been too obvious to include his death as the last significant event in the life of this officer and gentleman, but of course it was the final stop. He died, recorded as being from a stroke, on 14 September 1852, while staying at his favourite home, Walmer Castle in Kent, where he had residence as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.