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 ...

Arthur Whetham (c.1783 – 13 May 1853) 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 who became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth.

Family and early life

Arthur Whetham was born in 1783 the son of John Whetham. It is known that he was a descendant of Colonel Nathaniel Whetham, and Arthur was a brother of a different Colonel

John Whetham John Whetham (1733/4–1796), DD, a graduate of Exeter College, Oxford was Dean of Lismore from 1791 until 1796: he was also Archdeacon of Cork from 1793 and died at Clifton, Bristol on 1 May 1796."Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork, Cloy ...

, an officer in the

12th Regiment of Foot 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, who died during a

Siege of Gibraltar There have been fourteen recorded sieges of Gibraltar. Although the peninsula of Gibraltar is only long and wide, it occupies an extremely strategic location on the southern Iberian coast at the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It ...

. There was also a cousin of his named Lieutenant General Arthur Whetham (1753-1813), who was the Governor of Portsmouth. His great uncle, Thomas Whetham, was also a general who commanded the

from 1725 to 1741.

Military career

Whetham was commissioned as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

in the

40th Regiment of Foot The 40th (the 2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1717 in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) ...

in 1799. He took part in the

Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) was a military campaign from 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and ...

in 1799 and was wounded at the Battle of Montevideo in February 1807 during the

British invasions of the River Plate The British invasions of the River Plate were two unsuccessful British attempts to seize control of areas in the Spanish colony of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata that were located around the Río de la Plata in South America – in p ...

. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth and General Officer Commanding South-West District in January 1808. He was also colonel of the

60th Regiment of Foot 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. He died on 13 May 1853.

Notes

References

British Army major generals 1780s births 1853 deaths 40th Regiment of Foot officers British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars {{Mil-bio-stub