COMBERMERE, STAPLETON COTTON, 1ST VIS COUNT (1773-1865), British field-marshal and colonel of the 1ST Life Guards, was the second son of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire, and was born on Nov. at Llewenny Hall in Denbighshire. He was educated at West minster school, and when only 16 obtained a second lieutenancy in the 23rd regiment (Royal Welsh Fusiliers). He served in Cape Colony (1796), India (1797-1800), Ireland (1800), and in the Peninsula (1808-1812). He commanded Wellington's cavalry in Portugal, and fought at Salamanca (1812) . His career of active service was concluded in India (1826), where he besieged and took Bhurtpore. For this service he was created Viscount Combermere. In 1855 he was made a field-marshal and G.C.B. He died at Clifton on Feb. 21, 1865.
See Viscountess Combermere and Capt. W. W. Knollys, The Combermere Correspondence (1866).