Lord George Paget


General Lord George Augustus Frederick Paget , was a British soldier during the Crimean War who took part in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade. He later became a Whig politician.

Early life

Lord George Augustus Frederick Paget was born on 16 March 1818. 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. Among his siblings were Lady Emily, Lord Clarence Paget, Lady Mary Paget, Lord Alfred Paget, and Lady Adelaide Paget.
His parents were both previously married, and divorced; his father to Lady Caroline Villiers, and his mother to Henry Wellesley. From his mother's previous marriage, his elder half-siblings included Hon. Charlotte Wellesley, Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, and the Very Rev. Hon. Gerald Valerian Wellesley. From his father's previous marriage, his elder half-siblings included Lady Caroline Paget, Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey, Lady Jane Paget, Lady Georgina Paget, Lady Augusta Paget, Lord William Paget, and Lady Agnes Paget.

Career

Paget served in the Crimean War and fought at Alma and Balaclava in command of the 4th 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.

Member of Parliament

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

Personal life

On 27 February 1854, Paget married his first cousin Agnes Charlotte Paget, daughter of Sir Arthur Paget. They had two sons.
After her death on 10 March 1858, just six days after the birth of her child, he married secondly Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Fieschi Heneage, in 1861.
Paget died at his residence in Farm Street, Mayfair, London, in June 1880, aged 62. His widow remarried, as his third wife, to Arthur Capell, 6th Earl of Essex, in 1881. She died in January 1914.