ALTEN, SIR CHARLES (KARL) verian and British soldier, son of the Hanoverian Baron Alten, took service in the King's German Legion in British pay, and commanded the light infantry in the Hanoverian expedition of 1805, at the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, with Moore in Sweden and Spain, and in the Walcheren expedition. He commanded a brigade at Albuera, and in 1813 the famous "Light Brigade" in Spain. In 1815 he was in command of the 3rd Division, and was wounded at Waterloo. His conduct won for him the rank of Count von Alten. He returned in 1818 to Hanover, where he rose to the rank of field-marshal. Count von Alten, however, remained in the British Army as Major-Gen. Sir Charles Alten.
See Gentleman's Magazine (184o) ; N. L. Beamish, Hist. of the King's German Legion