Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan

Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan

FitzRoy James Henry Somerset by William Haines, 1818

Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan GCB , PC (born September 30, 1788 in Badminton , Gloucestershire , † June 28, 1855 near Sevastopol ) was a British field marshal and commander in chief in the Crimean War .

Life

Origin and youth

Fitzroy Somerset was the youngest son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort , and grandson of Admiral Edward Boscawen . An older brother was General Edward Somerset . When Fitzroy Somerset was 15 years old , his father bought him a patent in a cavalry regiment in the British Army .

Napoleonic Wars

In 1808 he served as aide-de-camp under Wellington in the war on the Iberian Peninsula in Portugal . In December 1810, he made him his military secretary. During this time he received several awards. Somerset was wounded in the Battle of Busaco . In the storming of Badajoz , he was the first to climb the breach. Somerset lost his right arm in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The Bavarian King Maximilian I. Joseph awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order in the same year .

After the end of the wars Somerset initially took over the position of secretary at the British embassy in Paris, which he had already held during the short period of the Bourbon rule in 1814/15. During this time he married a niece of Wellington, Emily Wellesley-Pole, with whom he had five children. In 1830 he was promoted to colonel , followed Wellington to Paris and on his legation trips to Vienna , Verona and Saint Petersburg . In the meantime he had been elected a member of the House of Commons and in 1818 had been given the post of secretary at the General witness office. Raglan became major general in 1835 , lieutenant general in 1838 and, after Wellington's death in 1852, field master general . At the same time he was raised to a peer as Baron Raglan .

Crimean War

Lord Raglan in the Crimea, portrait by Roger Fenton , ca.1855

On February 7, 1854, Raglan, after having been promoted to general shortly before, was offered command of the British troops "east of Malta ". This position described the supreme command of the British Army in the impending Crimean War. Six days later he was confirmed in office by the British Parliament . The reason for this was in particular his diplomatic experience. His old age and the fact that Raglan had not participated in any campaign or held any commands since 1815 were viewed critically.

Raglan and his troops landed near Varna in June , when the Russians' retreat behind the Danube had already begun. On September 8th he therefore embarked again to attack the Crimea . On September 14, 1854, the allied British and French landed north of Sevastopol in the Bay of Evpatoria in the Crimea. Six days later the Allies marched inland, where the Russian army awaited them on the Alma River . After difficulties in coordinating the Allied attack between the commanders in chief Marshal Arnaud and Raglan, the Allies were able to achieve their first victory in the Battle of the Alma .

On October 9th, the Allies began the siege of Sevastopol . An attempt by the Russians to end the siege led to the Battle of Balaklava on October 25, 1854 . In this battle, confusion in the transmission of Raglan's order led to the attack by the Light Brigade (English Charge of the Light Brigade ). This attack in a valley, which was enclosed on three sides by Russian artillery, achieved tragic fame because of its great losses. The battle ended in a draw and did not lift the siege.

The supplies of the British troops in the harsh winter in the Crimea were extremely poor. The reasons for this were, in addition to the insufficient support from home, also the incompetence and the euphemistic reports from Raglan and his staff. He also refused to buy supplies, especially wood, in Turkey. Due to the inadequate supply and the epidemics that broke out as a result, there were far more deaths among the troops than from the fighting itself.

On November 5, 1854, the trapped Russians attempted a sortie against the British troops, which led to the Battle of Inkerman . Raglan's troops defended themselves against roughly three times superior Russian troops in bitter fighting. Then French Zouaves and Foreign Legionaries attacked the Russians again in the flank and forced them to retreat. For this victory, Raglan was appointed field marshal, although he had made serious tactical mistakes in this battle as well as in the Battle of Balaklava, which had led to considerable casualties among the troops deployed.

While the siege of Sevastopol was continuing, Baron Raglan, who himself suffered from the consequences of the poor supply, fell ill with dysentery . On June 28, 1855, he died of the consequences of his illness and was thus himself a victim of his failures. His body was brought back home and buried in badminton.

family

Raglan had five children with Wellington's niece Emily Wellesley-Pole (1792–1881):

• Charlotte Caroline Elizabeth (1815-1906)
• Arthur William Fitzroy (1816-1845)
• Richard Henry Fitzroy (1817-1884)
• Frederick John Fitzroy (? -1824)
• Katherine Anne Emily Cecilia (1824-1915)

Trivia

The raglan sleeve is named after Lord Raglan . For the one-armed man, the sleeve of his coat was inserted with a seam that was not perpendicular to the shoulder seam, but at an angle from the armpit to the neck.

In the film The attack of the light brigade (1968) his role was played by John Gielgud , in The White Angel (1936) Halliwell played Hobbes Raglan.

Web links

Commons : FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

literature

• Winfried Baumgart : The Crimean War, 1853-1856 . Arnold, London 1999, ISBN 0-340-61465-X
• Denis Judd: The crimean was . Hart-Davis, London 1975, ISBN 0-246-10804-5 .
• Alexander W. Kinglake: The invasion of the crimea. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1863-89, (9 vols.).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rudolf von Kramer and Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: VIRTUTI PRO PATRIA - The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order, War Deeds and Book of Honor 1914-1918 , self-published by the Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order, Munich 1966, p. 355
2. ↑ Gwent Record Office Fitzroy Somerset Papers, in: Archives Wales (English), accessed on October 17, 2011 ( Memento of the original of May 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Raglan 1852–1855	Richard Somerset