Henry Wellesley, 6th Duke of Wellington

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Henry Valerian George Wellesley, 6th Duke of Wellington ( July 14, 1912 - September 16, 1943 ) was a British peer , officer and politician .

Life

He was the son of Arthur Wellesley, 5th Duke of Wellington , and the Hon. Lilian Maud Glean Coats, daughter of George Coats, 1st Baron Glentanar . As his father's apparent marriage , he carried the courtesy title Earl of Mornington from birth and from 1934 also the courtesy title Marquess of Douro . When his father died on December 11, 1941, he inherited his title of nobility as the 6th Duke of Wellington and thereby became a member of the House of Lords .

He joined the British Army and was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the Reserve in the Coldstream Guards on October 14, 1933 . On November 13, 1935, he received a regular command as a second lieutenant in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and on November 13, 1938 he was promoted to lieutenant . On February 26, 1939, he was posted to the Colonial Office .

In World War II he rose to the rank of captain of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, which took part in the fighting in Tunisia from March 1943 . Wellesley was eventually assigned to a Sonderkommando under Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Churchill , the No. 2 Commando of the Royal Marines . As the leader of a unit of this commando unit, he took part in the landing near Salerno in September 1943 as part of the Allied invasion of Italy . The No. 2 Commando and the No. 41 Commando shifted from their original front area at Vietri sul Mare , west of Salerno, to an area two to three miles inland from Mercatello , southeast of Salerno. The Germans held and reinforced three high positions there. On September 16, No. 2 Commando back during the day through a valley near the village of Piegolelle , nicknamed Pigoletti , which had been taken the night before, with the intention of occupying the hill called Pimple Hill at its end . But the Germans had sent light troops back into the valley in the early hours of the morning and reinforced the position on Pimple Hill . During the attack, two troop units were surprised by the advantageously positioned machine gun fire. The Duke was among the dead after being hit by a volley from a MG 42 .

He was buried in the British Salerno War Cemetery near Bivio Pratole in the province of Salerno .

Since he remained unmarried and childless, and because he was his father's only son, all of his nobility titles fell to his uncle Lord Gerald Wellesley , with the exception of the subordinate Spanish title Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo , which can also be inherited in the female line and that of his sister Lady Anne Rhys inherited as the 7th Duquesa de Ciudad Rodrigo .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 33986, HMSO, London, October 13, 1933, p. 6612 ( PDF , English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34224, HMSO, London, November 29, 1935, p. 7580 ( PDF , English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34570, HMSO, London, November 15, 1938, p. 7191 ( PDF , English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34609, HMSO, London, March 21, 1939, p. 1929 ( PDF , English).
  5. ↑ Casualty: Captain Wellesley, Henry Valerian George at Commonwealth War Graves Commission
predecessor Office successor
Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington
1941-1943 		Gerald Wellesley
Arthur Wellesley Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo
1941-1943 		Anne Rhys
personal data
SURNAME Wellesley, Henry, 6th Duke of Wellington
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wellesley, Henry Valerian George, 6th Duke of Wellington; Wellesley, Henry, Earl of Mornington; Wellesley, Henry, Marquess of Douro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British soldier and member of the House of Lords
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1912
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1943