Edward Arthur Somerset
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant-General Edward Arthur Somerset CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 (2 February 1817 – 12 March 1886) was a British soldier and politician, the son of Lord Edward Somerset
Lord Edward Somerset
General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset GCB was a British soldier.He was the third son of the 5th duke of Beaufort, and elder brother of Lord Raglan....

.

He joined the Rifle Brigade as a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...

 on 29 January 1836, becoming a lieutenant on 9 July 1840 and a captain on 31 January 1845. Somerset unsuccessfully contested Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Monmouthshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of Parliament of England from 1536 until 1707, of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1801, and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885...

 in 1847, but was returned in 1848, and continued to represent it as a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 until accepting the Stewardship of the Manor of Hempholme on 23 June 1859.

He married Agatha Miles (1827–1912), daughter of Sir William Miles
Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet
Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet was an English politician, agriculturalist and landowner. He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford and was created Baronet on April 19, 1859, of Leigh Court, Somerset....

, on 13 September 1849. They had one son and eight daughters:
  • Agatha Georgiana Somerset (1850 – 10 Mary 1940), married Maj. Charles Arthur Baldwyn Knyvett Leighton on 10 April 1879
  • Evelyn Somerset (20 November 1857 – 1 July 1883), married George Caulfeild Prideaux Browne on 7 September 1882
  • Ada Frances Somerset (1861 – 17 March 1949), married Sir Henry Mather-Jackson, 3rd Baronet on 3 August 1886
  • Maude Catherine Somerset (1862 – 6 June 1946)
  • Lillian Somerset (1864 – 22 January 1947), married Sir Frederick Palmer, 6th Baronet on 29 December 1892
  • Lt. Edward William Henry Somerset (25 January 1866 – 20 March 1890)
  • Blanche Louisa Somerset (1868 – 20 Aug 1946), married John George Burdon on 4 February 1892
  • Muriel Somerset (1870 – 25 Nov 1951), married Rev. William Neville on 7 November 1894
  • Hilda Somerset (1872 – 16 May 1965)


Somerset served in the 8th Xhosa War, and then in the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

. He saw action the Alma, Balaclava
Battle of Balaclava
The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Anglo-French-Turkish campaign to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea...

, and Inkermann. Shortly after, he was promoted major on 12 November 1854, and served at the Siege of Sevastopol, being promoted lieutenant-colonel on 23 March 1855. He was afterwards made a Knight 5th Class of the Medjidie
Medjidie
Medjidie or Mejidie is the name of a military and knightly order of the Ottoman Empire. The Order was instituted in 1851 by Sultan Abdülmecid I.-Order of the Medjidie:...

, and awarded the CB in 1857.

He was promoted colonel on 29 May 1858, and major general on 6 March 1860. He was returned as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for West Gloucestershire in 1867, but was defeated the following year. Somerset served as acting Governor of Gibraltar
Governor of Gibraltar
The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The Governor is appointed by the British Monarch on the advice of the British Government...

 from 1875 to 1876, and in 1878. On 1 October 1877, he was made lieutenant general. On 19 December 1881, he was appointed colonel of the 1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
Worcestershire Regiment
The Worcestershire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 29th Regiment of Foot and the 36th Regiment of Foot....

. He resigned the colonelcy in 1883 when he went on the retired list, but was colonel-commandant of the 1st Battaltion, King's Royal Rifle Corps
King's Royal Rifle Corps
The King's Royal Rifle Corps was a British Army infantry regiment, originally raised in colonial North America as the Royal Americans, and recruited from American colonists. Later ranked as the 60th Regiment of Foot, the regiment served for more than 200 years throughout the British Empire...

from 1884 until his death in 1886.

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