The Most Influential Army Leader of His Time
The story of Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as Prime Minister. His victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 puts him in the first rank of Britain’s military heroes. Wellesley was born in Dublin into the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787.
He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. Wellington was a colonel by 1796 and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam.
Wellington rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars and was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French Empire at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. His battle record was exemplary, ultimately participated in some 60 battles during his military career.
