Prominent Burtonians – Page 2 – Burton upon Trent Local History

Henry William Paget – 1st Marquis of Anglesey

Field Marshal Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey KG, GCB, GCH, PC (17 May 1768 – 29 April 1854), known as Lord Paget from 1784 to 1812 and as the Earl of Uxbridge from 1812 to 1815, was a British military leader and politician, now chiefly remembered for leading the charge of the heavy cavalry against d’Erlon’s column during the Battle of Waterloo. He also served twice as Master-General of the Ordnance and twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Born in London, as Henry Bayly (his father assumed the name Paget in 1770), he was the eldest son of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, by his wife Jane, daughter of the Very Reverend Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoisie, Ireland. The Hon. Sir Arthur Paget, General the Hon. Sir Edward Paget and Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Charles Paget were his younger brothers. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.

Paget entered parliament in 1790 as member for Carnarvon, a seat he held until 1796, and then represented Milborne Port between 1796 and 1804 and again between 1806 and 1810.

At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Paget raised the regiment of Staffordshire volunteers and was given the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1793. As the 80th Foot, the corps took part in the Flanders campaign of 1794 under Paget’s command. In 1795 he was made a lieutenant-colonel of the 16th Light Dragoons; in that same year, he married the daughter of the Earl of Jersey. In 1796 he was made a colonel, and by 1801 he had become colonel of the 7th Light Dragoons. In 1802 he was promoted major-general, and six years later lieutenant-general. He commanded the cavalry for Sir John Moore’s army during the Corunna campaign, wherein his troopers provided excellent rear-guard defence during the long retreat. The British cavalry showed a distinct superiority over their French counterparts at the action of Sahagun and routed the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard at Benevente.

This was his last service in the Peninsular War, because his liaison with Lady Charlotte, the wife of Henry Wellesley, afterwards Lord Cowley, made it impossible subsequently for him to serve with Wellington, Wellesley’s brother. His only war service from 1809 to 1815 was in the disastrous Walcheren expedition (1809), in which he commanded a division. In 1810 he was divorced and then married Lady Charlotte Wellesley, who had about the same time been divorced from her husband.

In 1815, he was appointed cavalry commander in Belgium, under the still resentful eye of Wellington. On the eve of Waterloo, Paget had his command extended by Wellington so as to include the whole of the allied cavalry and horse artillery. He handily covered the retirement of the Anglo-Allies from Quatre Bras to Waterloo on 17 June, and on 18 June led the spectacular cavalry charge of the British centre, which checked and in part routed D’Erlon’s corps d’armée (see Waterloo campaign).

One of the last cannon shots fired that day hit Paget in the right leg, necessitating its amputation. According to anecdote, he was close to Wellington when his leg was hit, and exclaimed, “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” — to which Wellington replied, “By God, sir, so you have!” According to his aide-de-camp, Thomas Wildman, during the amputation Paget smiled and said, “I have had a pretty long run. I have been a beau these 47 years and it would not be fair to cut the young men out any longer.”

He was to have an articulated artificial limb fitted by James Potts. Lord Uxbridge’s amputated leg had a somewhat macabre after-life.

Paget was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in January 1815, and on 4 July 1815, just over two weeks after Waterloo, the Prince Regent created him Marquess of Anglesey. He was also made a Knight of the Order of St George of Russia and a Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa of Austria the same year. In 1816 he was also apppointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order and in 1818 he was made a Knight of the Garter. A 27m high monument to his heroism (designed by Thomas Harrison) was erected at Llanfair PG on Anglesey, close to his country retreat at Plas Newydd, in 1816. A separate monument to his leg was erected at Waterloo but the bones were later disinterred and put on display.

In 1819 Anglesey became full general, and at the coronation of George IV, he acted as Lord High Steward of England. His support of the proceedings against Queen Caroline made him for a time unpopular, and when he was on one occasion beset by a crowd, who compelled him to shout “The Queen!”, he added the wish, “May all your wives be like her.” In April 1827, he became a member of the Canning administration, taking the post of Master-General of the Ordnance and becoming a member of the Privy Council. Under the Wellington administration, he accepted the appointment of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (March 1828).

In December 1828, he addressed a letter to the Roman Catholic primate of Ireland stating his belief in the need for Catholic emancipation, which led to his recall by the government; on the formation of Earl Grey’s administration in November 1830, he again became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In July 1833, the ministry resigned over the Irish question, he spent thirteen years out of office, then joined Lord John Russell’s administration in July 1846 as master-general of the ordnance, finally retiring in March 1852 with the rank of field-marshal and colonel of the Royal Horse Guards. He also held the honorary posts of Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey between 1812 and 1854 and Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire between 1849 and 1854.

As well as the long name, the village of Llanfairpwll on the island of Anglesey is also locally famous for the Marquess of Anglesey Column. It is 90 feet high and was erected as a tribute in 1817.

Henry Cyril Paget – 5th Marquis of Anglesey

(known until 1880 by the courtesy title of Lord Paget de Beaudesert and from 1880 until 1898 as Earl of Uxbridge)
(16 June 1875 – 14 March 1905) was a British Peer who was notable during his short life for squandering his inheritance on a lavish social life and accumulating massive debts. Regarded as the “black sheep” of the family, he was nicknamed “the dancing marquess” for his habit of performing “sinuous, sexy, snake-like dances”. He blew the equivalent of half-a-billion pounds on jewelled costumes and lavish lifestyle.

The Complete Peerage says that he “seems only to have existed for the purpose of giving a melancholy and unneeded illustration of the truth that a man with the finest prospects, may, by the wildest folly and extravagance, as Sir Thomas Browne says, ‘foully miscarry in the advantage of humanity, play away an uniterable life, and have lived in vain.'”

Paget was the eldest son of the 4th Marquess by his father’s second wife, Blanche Mary Boyd. Rumors persisted, however, that his biological father was the French actor Benoît-Constant Coquelin, a rumor that gained currency when, after the death of his mother in 1877, when he was two years old, Paget was raised by Coquelin’s sister in Paris until he was eight. His stepmother, from 1880, was an American, Mary Livingston King, the widow of the Hon Henry Wodehouse.

He attended Eton College, later receiving private tuition, and enlisted as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers; on 20 January 1898 he married his cousin Lilian Florence Maud Chetwynd (1876—1962). Upon the death of his father on 13 October 1898, he inherited his title and the family estates with about 30,000 acres in Staffordshire, Dorset, Anglesey and Derbyshire, providing an annual income of £110,000.

Paget swiftly acquired a reputation for using his money to throw lavish parties and even more extravagant theatre performances. The most notable of these was a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry V, in which Paget himself played the title role. His wife disapproved of his lifestyle and obtained a decree nisi of divorce on 7 November 1900; it was later annulled due to nonconsummation, according to Lady Anglesey’s grandson by her second marriage, the historian Christopher Simon Sykes. The breakdown of his marriage effectively gave Paget more freedom to enjoy his self-indulgent lifestyle. By this stage he had already begun to mortgage his estates to raise money.

On 10 September 1901, Paget’s French valet Julian Gault took the opportunity of his employer’s absence at the theatre to steal jewellery to the value of £50,000. At the time, Paget was living in the Walsingham House Hotel in London. Gault, who was later arrested at Dover, testified in court that he had been instructed to steal the jewels by a French woman of his acquaintance called Mathilde (who had taken the jewels to France and was never found). Although Gault’s testimony was believed to be true, he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on 22 October and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

By 1904, despite his inheritance and income, Paget had accumulated debts of £544,000 and on 11 June was declared bankrupt. His lavish wardrobe and jewels were sold to pay creditors, the jewels alone realising £80,000.

In 1905, Paget died in Monte Carlo following a long illness, with his ex-wife by his side, and his remains were returned to Llanedwen for burial. The Times reported that despite all that was known of him, he remained much liked by the people of Bangor who regretted to hear of his death. Lilian, Marchioness of Anglesey, married, in 1909, John Francis Grey Gilliat, a banker, by whom she had three children.

The title was passed down to his cousin Charles Henry Alexander Paget; subsequent holders of the title attempted to suppress the story of the “dancing marquess”.

Sir Stanley Clarke OBE

In brief, Stanley William Clarke was businessman and racecourse owner. Born in Burton upon Trent from a fairly humble background, he rose to become chairman and president of St Modwen Properties plc and was a founder and chairman of Northern Racing. He was appointed CBE in 1990 and knighted in 2001.

Stanley was born in Woods Lane, Stapenhill in 1933. His father suffered from ill-health with long periods out of work, his mother, Mabel, worked in service at Dunstall Hall. Young Stanley contributed to the family by delivering newspapers as well as meat for a local butcher. After attending Burton Technical College, he started work as an apprentice plumber. During his twenties, he purchased a plot of land for £125 but sold it before long for £650. His business empire had begun!

After getting married to his wife Hilda, Stanley formed a building company with his brother-in-law, Jim Leavesey. The company became Clarke Quality Homes and grew radidly to become one of the largest house builders in the Midlands. The house building company was eventually sold to Balfour Beatty in 1986 leaving him to concentrate on his other company, St Modwen Properties Ltd (later St Modwen Properties plc), which took on much larger developments which included Burton’s Octagon Shopping Centre, Stoke-on-Trent’s Festival Park, Britannia Stadium and regeneration of Trentham Gardens.

His success allowed him indulge his life long love of horse racing but, unlike most who have to content themselves with buying a racehorse, in 1988 at age 55, he bought Uttoxeter Racecourse! Though the course was struggling at the time, it was quickly transformed under Clarke’s ownership. He gave each of his courses a distinctive green and white livery as part of a re-branding that concentrated on quality.

Stanley Clarke was not a man easily missed. Broad of frame and of smile, he made a huge impact on British racing by buying up eight further racecourses and applying at all of them the simple policy: giving the customers what they want. He always enthusiastically encourage feedback from people at his racecourses whether it be by walking around with a name-badge on his jacket or distributing “How are we doing?” questionnaires.

Clarke’s racecourses portfolio included – Bath, Brighton, Chepstow, Yarmouth, Fontwell, Hereford, Newcastle, Sedgefield, and of course, Uttoxeter – and was instrumental in creating a more aggressive, commercial approach among courses. His acquisition of Brighton was a particular success. The seaside course had become run-down and in decline, but Clarke’s pizazz saw it restored virtually to former glories. The courses eventually became ‘Northern Racing group’, and was one of the first racecourse groups to negotiate directly with the bookmaking industry to secure a deal for transmitting pictures from those tracks to Britain’s betting shops and beyond.

Clarke’s involvement in racing extended beyond ownership of nine courses; he was also a successful racehorse owner and held a permit to train. In his younger days, he and his wife, had featured prominently on the point-to-point circuit, with good horses such as Mount Argus and Captain Frisk. As always, what he touched turned to Gold and in 1997, he realised one of his highest ambitions and won the Grand National with his horse Lord Gyllene. Each Grand National seems to come up with headline news, but that year, more so than ever. It took place on a Monday, having been delayed by 48 hours by a bomb scare. Amid a festival atmosphere, of a type Clarke was always trying to engender at his courses, Lord Gyllene was ridden by Tony Dobbin to a runaway victory.

The New Zealand-bred gelding was one of a succession of high-class jumpers to run in Clarke’s black-and-white-striped colours. Barton won the 1999 Royal & Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and is one of a few horses to defeat the triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate.

Another Cheltenham Festival winner was Rolling Ball, who also won over the Aintree fences but is best known for victory in the 1991 Royal & Sun Alliance Chase on only his second start over fences. So excited was Mrs Clarke by the success that she fainted afterwards in the winner’s enclosure. Another quality Clarke horse was Lord Relic, who won the 1993 Challow Hurdle at Newbury by 10 lengths. Stanley Clarke was also a member of the Jockey Club and served as a board member of the Racecourse Association for over 10 years.

Sir Stanley’s legacy is also that he is remembered through the millions of pounds he gave to or raised for wide ranging charities. These included Lichfield Cathedral, Queen’s Hospital Cancer Appeal, Racing Welfare Charities and the Animal Health Trust at Newmarket all benefited hugely from his generosity. He even stepped in and rescued Burton Albion when it was facing financial ruin.

Sir Stanley achieved his deepest private aspiration towards the end of his life by gaining ownership of Dunstall Hall for £4.5 million and fully restored it (which was featured on Channel Five TV). His plan for Dunstall Hall was not only to make it his residence, but also to turn the dilapidated estate into a prestigious conference venue to ensure its ongoing survival.

Having already been awarded an OBE in 1990, Sir Stanley was knighted in 2001 and was soon afterwards, elevated to High Sheriff of Staffordshire. Very sadly, soon afterwards, he was diagnosed with cancer. After battling determinedly, he died on 19th September 2004. From his humble beginnings, St Modwen’s Properties plc was by then valued at around £268 million.