RAGLAN, FITZROY JAMES HENRY SOMERSET, I ST BARON ( I 788-1855), British field marshal, was the eighth and youngest son of Henry, 5th duke of Beaufort, by Elizabeth Boscawen, and was born on Sept. 3o, 1788. Lord Fitzroy Somerset was educated at Westminster school, and entered the army in 1804. He served on the staff of Sir Arthur Wellesley in the ex pedition to Copenhagen (1807), and went with him to Portugal in 1808. During the whole of the Peninsular War he was at his right hand, first as aide-de-camp and then as military secretary. He was the first to mount the breach at Badajoz, and afterwards showing great resolution and promptitude in securing one of the gates before the French could organize a fresh defence. During the short period of the Bourbon rule in 1814 and 1815 he was secretary to the English embassy at Paris. On the renewal of the war he again became aide-de-camp and military secretary to the duke of Wellington. About this time he married Emily Harriet, daughter of the 3rd earl of Mornington, and Wellington's niece. At Waterloo he was wounded in the right arm and had to undergo amputation, but on the conclusion of the war resumed his duties as secretary to the embassy at Paris. From 1818 to 182o, and again in 1826-29, he sat in the House of Commons as member for Truro. In 1819 he was appointed secretary to the duke of Wellington as master-general of the ordnance, and from 1827 till the death of the duke in 1852 was military secretary to him as commander-in-chief. He was then appointed master-general of
the ordnance, and was created Baron Raglan.
In 1854 he was promoted general and appointed to the command of the British troops sent to the Crimea (see CRIMEAN WAR) in co-operation with a strong French army under Marshal St. Arnaud and afterwards, up to May 1855, under Marshal Canrobert. Here the advantage of his training under the duke of Wellington was seen in the soundness of his generalship, and his diplomatic ex perience stood him in good stead in dealing with the generals and admirals, British, French and Turkish, who were associated with him. For the hardship; and sufferings of the British soldiers in the terrible Crimean winter before Sevastopol, owing to failure in the commissariat, both as regards food and clothing, Lord Raglan and his staff were at the time severely censured by the press and the Government; but it afterwards appeared that the chief neglect rested with the home authorities. He was made a field marshal after Inkermann. During the trying winter of 55 his health was undermined. Disappointment at the failure of the assault of June 18, 1855, finally broke his spirit, and on June 28, 1855, he died.
See Kinglake, Invasion of the Crimea (1863-87) ; Hamley, War in the Crimea (1891).