Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge (17 May 1768 – 29 April 1854) was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1828 to 1829 and from 1830 to 1833. Known for his gallant cavalry charge at the Battle of Waterloo, Paget was made the Marquess of Anglesey as a reward.
Biography[]
Uxbridge at the Battle of Waterloo
Henry Paget was born in London in 1768, serving as a politician in Wales during his early years. However, with the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Paget became the commander of a regiment of cavalry and fought in Flanders (1794) and the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (October 1799). In 1802 he was promoted to Major-General and fought as the commander of Sir John Moore's cavalry during the Peninsular War. When Moore died in 1808, Paget took part in the Battle of Walcheren a year later.
During the Hundred Days campaign of 1815, Paget commanded the British cavalry under the command of the Duke of Wellington. During the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 he led a charge of his blue-coated cavalry regiment and repulsed the Comte d'Erlon's column that attacked Wellington's right flank. Paget was wounded in the melee with the French infantry and his leg was amputated after the battle. His cut-off leg was interred at Waterloo's historical site as a sort of macabre.
After the battle, he was made Marquess of Anglesey as a replacement for his title of Earl of Uxbridge, and he became the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on two occasions. He died at the age of 85 in 1854.