Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Sir Albert Henry Wilmot Williams, (7 February 1832 – 29 October 1919) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer and courtier.

Early life and family

Albert Henry Wilmot Williams was born on 7 February 1832, the second son of Captain James Wilmot Williams (died 1845), of

Herringston Winterborne Herringston, also Winterbourne Herringston, is a small civil parish and hamlet containing about 600 acres in Dorset, England, 1.4 miles south of Dorchester. The only significant structure is Herringston House, a Grade II* listed 14th ...

in Dorset, and his wife, Elizabeth Anne Magenis, daughter of Richard Magenis, of County Down, a member of Parliament, by his wife Lady Elizabeth Cole, daughter of

William Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen (1 March 1736 – 22 May 1803), styled The Honourable from 1760 to 1767, then known as Lord Mountflorence to 1776 and as Viscount Enniskillen to 1789, was an Irish peer and politician. Enniskille ...

.J. Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1833), vol. 1, p. 614 The family were long-established members of the English landed gentry and the elder Williams had inherited his father's estate in 1757. The younger Williams had four siblings: Edward Wilmot Williams, JP, DL (b. 1826), sometime an officer in the Bengal Cavalry and husband of a daughter of the 2nd Viscount Guillamore; Ashley George Wilmot Williams (b. 1834), who married, and lived at Cadlington,

Blendworth Blendworth is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It lies 0.4 miles (0.6 km) northeast of Horndean just east off the A3 road. The village has a population of fewer than 100 people. The church, Holy Trinity, was ...

Horndean Horndean is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, north of Portsmouth. The nearest railway station is southeast of the village at Rowlands Castle. The village had a population of 12,942 at the 2011 Census, and shares the semi-rura ...

in Hampshire; Florence Elizabeth Wilmot Williams (d. 1887), who married Hon. St Leger Richard Glyn; and Gertrude Mary Wilmot Williams, who married Major General Sir Alexander Elliot.

Military career

In December 1849, Williams was promoted from

Gentleman Cadet Officer Cadet is a rank held by military cadets during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by members of University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps and University Air ...

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. Further promotions followed: lieutenant in 1851, second captain (1856), captain (1863), and major (1872). In 1875, he was made a

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and six years later a

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

. During his career, he saw active service in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

and in central Asia, and was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

during the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

."Williams, Maj.-Gen. Sir Albert Henry Wilmot"
''Who Was Who'' (online edition), Oxford University Press, 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2017. In 1883, he was appointed a Colonel on the Staff in command of the Royal Artillery at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

, in the place of Colonel William Reilly; two years later, he was appointed an Extra Aide-de-camp to the

Duke of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male des ...

, and then three years after that he was made

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

on the staff commanding troops at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

. In 1892, Williams was made Deputy Adjutant General at the Artillery Headquarters; in 1894, he was placed on retired pay and made an Extra

Equerry An equerry (; from French ' stable', and related to 'squire') is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually up ...

to the Duke of Cambridge. He remained in the Duke's service, eventually as an equerry, until the Duke's death in 1904, when

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

appointed him a

Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, or ...

. The following year, he became Colonel Commandant of the

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link ...

.''Western Gazette'', 31 October 1919, p. 4. Williams never married. He was a member of the United Service and

Turf Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultu ...

clubs and died on 29 October 1919.

Likenesses

Portrait
by

Walter Stoneman Walter Ernest Stoneman (6 April 1876 – 14 May 1958) was an English portrait photographer who took many photographs for the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. Career as a photographer Stoneman was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 6 ...

; bromide print, 1917 (6 ¹/₈ in. x 4 ³/₄ in./155 mm x 120 mm). Housed in the Photographs Collection,

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

, London (ref. number NPG x186167).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmot Williams, Albert Henry 1832 births 1919 deaths British Army major generals British Army personnel of the Crimean War British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the British Royal Household