Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir Herbert Taylor (29 September 1775 – 20 March 1839) was the first Private Secretary to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, serving George III, George IV, and William IV.

Military career

Taylor was the son of Rev. Edward Taylor of Bifrons, Patrixbourne, Kent and his wife Margaret PaylerJohn Burke ''A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain Volume 3''
/ref> daughter of Thomas Turner Payler of Ileden, who died at Brussels in 1780.''Parishes: Patrixborne'', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), pp. 277–286. Date accessed: 24 November 2010
/ref> The diplomat Sir Brook Taylor was his younger brother. He joined the

2nd Dragoon Guards The 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was first raised in 1685 by the Earl of Peterborough as the Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse by merging four existing troops of horse. Renamed several ti ...

as a

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

in 1794.Herbert Taylor at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> Later that year he was promoted to lieutenant and then the following year to captain. In 1795 he served as assistant secretary and aide de camp to the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...

, then commander-in-chief of the British Army. Taylor was later the Duke of York's assistant military secretary, an office he held until 1798. He was later a Major. In 1798 he was made Aide de Camp,

Military Secretary Military Secretary is a post found in the military of several countries: * Military Secretary (India) *Military Secretary of Israel, called Military Secretary to the Prime Minister *Military Secretary (Pakistan) *Military Secretary (Sri Lanka) * Mil ...

and Private Secretary to the Marquess Cornwallis,

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...

. In the following year he returned to the Duke of York's service and remained there until 1805, although he was transferred to the 9th West Indian Regiment as a lieutenant-colonel in 1801. However, in the following year, with a period of relative calm in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, he was placed on half pay. In that year he joined the Coldstream Guards, in which he became a brevet colonel in 1810. In 1805 he became private secretary to King George III, and then, from 1811 private secretary to Queen Charlotte, the queen consort. He retained that office until 1818. Taylor commanded a brigade at

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

1813–1814, and was sent on a diplomatic mission to Bernadotte of Sweden in 1814. He was Member of Parliament ( MP) for Windsor 1820–23. From 1820 to 1827 he was Ambassador to Berlin and then

, having become colonel for life of the 85th Foot Regiment in 1823. He was first and principal aide de camp to King George IV in 1827, and also deputy Secretary at War. From 1828 to 1830 he was Adjutant-General to the Forces. He became private secretary to the new king, William IV, in 1830. On the death of the king in 1837 he retired, although he was first and principal aide de camp to Queen Victoria 1837–39. Taylor became a Major-General in 1813, and a

in 1825. He was Master of St Katherine's Hospital, Regent's Park, and

Master Surveyor Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

and Surveyor-General of the Ordnance from 1828. He died in 1839. The monument to him at St. Katherine's is by the sculptor

Peter Rouw Peter Rouw II (17 April 1771– 9 December 1852) was a London-based sculptor specialising in bas-reliefs in marble, often in the form of mural church monuments, and in wax miniature portraits, often of a pink hue on black glass. He designed meda ...

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Herbert 1775 births 1839 deaths British Army generals Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath UK MPs 1820–1826 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) officers Coldstream Guards officers Private Secretaries to the Sovereign Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom