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 William Nicolay (14 April 17713 May 1842) 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 present at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

who later became Governor of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

. He was the sixth son - not the third -

Life

He was the third son of Frederick de Nicolay, Principal Page to Princess

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

, wife of

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. He was born at St. James's Palace on 14 April 1771 and was a member of the British branch of the Nicolay family. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet on 1 Nov. 1785, but did not obtain a commission as second lieutenant Royal Artillery until 28 May 1790. In April 1791 he embarked for India with two newly formed companies of Royal Artillery, known as the 'East India Detachment,’ which subsequently formed the nucleus of the old sixth battalion (Duncan, Hist. Roy. Artillery, ii. 2). He served under

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

at the siege of

Seringapatam Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...

in 1792, and was an assistant engineer at the reduction of Pondicherry in 1793. Meanwhile, with some other artillery subalterns, he had been transferred in November 1792 to the Royal Engineers, in which he became first lieutenant on 15 August 1793 and captain on 29 August 1798. He was present at the capture of Saint Lucia, and was left there as commanding engineer by Sir John Moore. He afterwards served under Sir

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and

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until compelled to return home by a broken thigh, which incapacitated him for duty for two years. When the Royal Staff Corps was formed, to provide a corps for Quartermaster General's and engineer duties which should be under the Horse Guards (instead of under the ordnance), Nicolay was appointed major of the new corps from 26 June 1801, and on 4 April 1805 became lieutenant colonel. He was employed on the defences of the Kent and Sussex coasts during the invasion alarms of 1804–1805, and on intelligence duties under Sir John Moore in Spain in 1808, and was present at Corunna. He became a brevet colonel on 4 June 1813 and in 1815 proceeded to Belgium in command of five companies of the Royal Staff Corps, and was present at the

. During the battle he received a wound to the head and was unhorsed by a splinter, but did not report himself wounded. Afterwards he received the Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and Waterloo Medal then proceeded with the army for the occupation of Paris. There he remained until the division destined to occupy the frontier, of which the Staff Corps formed part, moved to Cambray. He became a major general on 12 August 1819. He was Governor of Dominica from April 1824 to July 1831, Governor of Saint Kitts and Nevis, (which included

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

, Antigua, and the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...

) from January 1831 to December 1832, and Governor of Mauritius from 1832 to February 1840, an anxious time, as, owing to the recent abolition of slavery and other causes, there was much ill-feeling in the island towards the British. Nicolay was promoted to lieutenant general on 10 January 1837, and was appointed colonel,

1st West India Regiment The West India Regiments (WIR) were infantry units of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the British colonies of the Caribbean between 1795 and 1927. In 1888 the two West India Regiments then in existence were reduced t ...

, 30 November 1839. He died at his residence, Oriel Lodge, Cheltenham, on 3 May 1842. He married in 1806 the second daughter of the Rev. E. Law of Whittingham,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

References

* Kane's List of Officers Roy. Art. 1869 ed. p. 20 * Vibart's History Madras Sappers, vol. i., for accounts of sieges of Seringapatam and Pondicherry. Nicolay's name is misspelt Nicolas * Philippart's Royal Military Calendar, 1820, iv. 43 * Basil Jackson's Recollections of the Waterloo Campaign (privately printed); Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 205.] {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolay, William 1771 births 1842 deaths Royal Artillery officers Royal Engineers officers Royal Staff Corps officers British Army generals British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars King's German Legion Governors of Dominica Governors of British Mauritius Companions of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Waterloo Medal Governors of British Saint Christopher