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Season 2023 – Talk 05 – Wellington
In Wellington Derek Sibley tells us about a few things that we might not know about the 1st Duke of Wellington.
Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.
Early life:
Arthur Wesley (at this time this is the correct spelling) is the sixth of nine children born to Anne Wellesley, Countess of Mornington and Garret Wesley. His father has a short career in politics representing the constituency Trim in the Irish House of Commons. In 1758 he becomes 2nd Baron Mornington.
Arthur spends most of his childhood at his family’s two homes. One, Mornington House is a large house in Dublin, and the other is Dangan Castle in County Meath.
Early military career:
His military career starts in Ireland. He rapidly moves through the ranks, changing regiments on a number of occasions. He also serves as a member of Parliament in the Irish Parliament. It is in the early 1790s that he is attracted to Kitty Pakenham, to her father’s displeasure.
He is sent to join the Duke of York’s campaign in Belgium and the Netherlands. The campaign is a failure however he learns much. He later comments ‘at least I learned what not to do, and that is always a valuable lesson’.
India:
The British East India Company uses the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1798 to increase it’s rule. They fight against the Sultan of Mysore, Tipu Sultan. Wellington succeeds in his mission and the company gains control over this part of India.
Whilst in India Wellington is promoted to Brigadier General in July 1801.
Peninsular War:
Wellington shows his prowess as a commander fighting from Portugal, through Spain and France to Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo. You can find out more about the campaign in Portugal in Peter Duffy’s talk.
Politics, marriage and later life:
Listen to the podcast and hear the whole story from Derek.
About this podcast:
This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History Group .
It is not always possible to use all of the images presented in the original talk because of copyright reasons.
This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.
AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.
© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2023
