William Staveley

William Staveley
William Staveley
Born	29 July 1784
Died	4 April 1854 (aged 69)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	British Army
Rank	Lieutenant-General
Commands	Commander and Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong; Bombay Army; Madras Army
Battles / wars	Peninsular War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath

Lieutenant-General William Staveley CB (29 July 1784 – 4 April 1854) was a British Army officer who fought in the Peninsular War and later became Commander and Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong.

Military career

Staveley was born in York, the son of William Staveley and Henrietta Henderson. He entered the British Army in 1798 as an ensign. Staveley fought in several conflicts in the Peninsular War (Battle of Talavera, Battle of Fuentes de Onoro, Battle of Vittoria, Battle of the Pyrenees, Battle of Toulouse, Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo and Battle of Badajoz and many other minor actions).

At the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, Staveley was present as a captain in the Royal Staff Corps, afterwards receiving the Companion of the Bath (CB) and a promotion to brevet Lieutenant-colonel.^[1]

He went to Mauritius in 1821 and served in various roles (deputy quartermaster-general and commandant of Port Louis) before becoming Commander and Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong in 1847.

After leaving Hong Kong in 1851, he was given command of the Bombay Army. In 1853, he was made Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot and appointed commander-in-chief of the Madras Army (with local rank of lieutenant-general). He died in the Nilgiri Hills, and was buried at Ootacamund.

Staveley Street

Staveley Street (Chinese: 士他花利街; Cantonese Yale: si6 ta1 fa1 lei6 gaai1; pinyin: Shìtāhuālì Jiē) is a street in Central on the Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, named after Staveley. The street is for pedestrians only and parallel to Peel Street.^[2]

Family

He married Sarah Mather in 1817. Their children included Charles William Dunbar Staveley, Harriet Frances Staveley, and Caroline Octavia Emma Staveley, who in 1847 married Talavera Vernon Anson RN.^[3]

References

^ Dalton, Charles (1904). The Waterloo roll call. With biographical notes and anecdotes. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. p. 206.
^ Yanne, Andrew; Heller, Gillis (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-962-209-944-9. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
^ 'General Sir George Anson, G.C.B', obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1850, pp. 87–88

External links

Jackson, Louis (1935). "One of Wellington's Staff Officers: Lieut.-General William Staveley, C.B.". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 14 (55): 155–166.
Bibliography in Staveley genealogy
His son's bibliography in Worcestershire Regiment

Military offices
Preceded by Sir George D'Aguilar	Commander and Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong 1848–1851	Succeeded by William Jervois
Preceded by Sir Richard Armstrong	C-in-C, Madras Army 1853–1854	Succeeded by George Anson
Preceded by Sir William Warre	Colonel of the 94th Regiment of Foot 1853–1854	Succeeded by Henry Thomas

[1] Dalton, Charles (1904). The Waterloo roll call. With biographical notes and anecdotes. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. p. 206.

[2] Yanne, Andrew; Heller, Gillis (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-962-209-944-9. Retrieved 18 June 2020.

[3] 'General Sir George Anson, G.C.B', obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1850, pp. 87–88

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