Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget KCB. GCB. (1851 - 1928)

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Fiske (Stevens) Paget — married 1878 in London, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 8 Dec 1928 at age 77 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France

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Biography

Birth
Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget was born 1 March 1851, St George, Hanover Square, London. ^[1]He was the son of Alfred Paget and Cecilia Wyndham and the eldest of six sons and eight daughters.^[2]

Marriage
In July 1878, he married the American heiress Mary "Minnie" Stevens (1853-1919) (daughter of the fabulously wealthy Massachusetts hotel proprietors Paran Stevens and Marietta Reed Stevens), who was strong minded and vivacious and became a noted society hostess, famed for her jewels and expensive costumes. They had one daughter, Louise, who married her distant cousin, the diplomat Ralph Paget; and three sons, Albert, Arthur and Reginald, who all became army officers. Albert, a colonel of hussars, died in France in 1917 from the effects of gas poisoning. During the 1870s Arthur Paget was a leading owner of steeplechasers. Until 1878 he used the nom de plume 'Mr Fitzroy'. Under this pseudonym, Paget wrote several novels in the Naturalist style, recounting his exploits in the military.

Army Career
As a boy Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget was a page of honour to Queen Victoria. Educated at Wellington College, he entered the Scots Guards (1869), serving in the Ashanti war on the Gold Coast of west Africa (1873–4), in the Suakin campaign in the Sudan (1885), in Burma (1887–8), and again in Sudan (1888–9). Brevet-colonel in command of the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards (1895–1900), in the South African war he saw action in the advances along the Cape Colony frontier and to Bloemfontein. Promoted to major-general (April 1900), he commanded 20th Infantry Brigade on the march to Pretoria, and played a principal role in the last orthodox pitched battle of the war, the assault on Rhenoster Kop (29 November). After quarrelling with his superior, he resigned his command and returned in a huff to Britain (June 1901), where he received command of the 1st Division, Aldershot (1902–6). Promoted to lieutenant-general and knighted (1906), he served as general officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Command (1908–11) and the Irish Command (1911–14). Possessed of considerable wealth, Paget won renown less as a soldier than as a "bon vivant"; his close friendship from boyhood with the prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) – the two were regular social companions – was an incalculable asset throughout his career. Pompous and verbose in speech, headstrong when aroused, though gallant in the field, Paget was neither cool nor clear-headed; intellectually shallow, he boasted to have ‘lived history rather than read it’ (Times obit.).

In March 1914 Paget – fresh from meetings in London with the army council and a special cabinet committee on Ulster – precipitated the so-called Curragh ‘mutiny’ by grossly and melodramatically misrepresenting orders regarding precautionary troop movements intended to safeguard against possible seizures of arms depots by the Ulster Volunteers. At a conference with seven of his senior officers (20 March), he tactlessly concentrated not on the immediate modest deployments, but on the possible implications of the contingency plans discussed in London for larger operations in the event of conflict with the Ulster Volunteers. In a temper, he announced that active and extensive operations in Ulster were about to commence, predicting that within a day the country ‘would be in a blaze’. Instructed when in London that the few officers of his command domiciled in Ulster might be exempted from participation in the operation, but that other officers declining to participate were to be dismissed from the army, he directed that each officer must decide whether to serve in the operation or to tender his resignation forthwith and face dismissal. Paget would later assert that his intention had been to ascertain the officers upon whom he could rely, and later again (and contradictorily) that he never had intended that the decision be put to junior officers; but the majority of his senior officers understood the directive as an ultimatum to be placed before all officers in their commands. By the evening, Brig.-gen. Hubert Gough (qv) and sixty other officers of 3rd Cavalry Brigade, stationed at the Curragh and Marlborough barracks, Dublin, had determined to resign their commissions. Requested by the Curragh officers for clarification of the orders, Paget, determined to ‘put some heart in them’, further exacerbated the situation with another long-winded, rambling, contradictory discourse (21 March). When Gough and other key dissident officers, summoned to London, testified their willingness to have obeyed any direct order to move to Ulster, the onus of blame for the crisis centred on Paget's having placed before them an alternative. Advised by several high-ranking military supporters in concert with leading unionist politicians, Gough then secured an extraordinary written guarantee that his command would receive no orders to enforce the home rule bill on Ulster (23 March). When it transpired that the full terms of the guarantee exceeded those agreed by the cabinet, the prime minister, Herbert Asquith, repudiated the additional terms, resulting in the resignations of those responsible for issuing them, including the war minister, J. E. B. Seely, and the military chief of staff, Sir John French (qv). Paget also offered his resignation (which was not accepted), largely for having incorrectly assured his men that the orders had been sanctioned by the king – which assurance had proved critical in persuading the majority of infantry and artillery officers to remain in their posts.

Paget's inept handling of the Curragh affair precluded his obtaining a field command during the first world war. Relieved of the Irish command and recalled to Britain, he commanded the 1st Army of the Central Force constituted out of the mobilised Territorial Army for home defence. In 1915 he was appointed commander in the Salisbury training centre, preparing troops for deployment overseas.

Paget relinquished Irish Command on the outbreak of World War I. He continued to serve during the war, although not in France. Edmonds later claimed that Paget had been the best candidate to command III Corps in September 1914 (it went to Pulteney) but that Sir John French passed him over having had a row with him on manoeuvres in 1913. However, French tried to obtain an Army command for him in June 1915 (Richard Holmes writes that French remained fond of him but insisted on his suitability despite "impressive evidence to the contrary"). From April 1916 to February 1918 he commanded Southern Army charged with the defence of South-East England while French, having been replaced in France by Haig, was Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces. Sir Arthur Paget was Colonel of the Buffs from 6 Nov 1914 until his death. He retired from the army in 1918 and died on 8 Dec 1928. By Stephen Luscombe ^[3]

Retirement
Paget retired in 1918. That year he was appointed King of Arms of the Order of the British Empire. He spent much of the remainder of his life at Cannes, where he died at the Villa Valhalla, Chemin de Benefiat, on 8 December 1928, and was buried in Le Grand Jas cemetery.[1] After retiring in 1918, he spent most of his time in Cannes, prominent in yachting circles on the Riviera. His other recreations included racing, hunting, fishing, and golf; an avid gardener, he had a wide amateur knowledge of botany. He had residences at 35 Belgrave Sq., London, and Warren House, Coombe, Kingston Hall, Surrey. He was created a CVO (1901), CB (1904), KCVO (1906), KCB (1907), PC (Ireland) (1912), GCB (1913), and King at Arms, OBE (1918); an ADC General to King George V (1910–14), he was a grand officer of the Légion d'honneur, and held several other foreign orders. He married (1878) Mary Stevens (d. 1919) of New York, USA; strong-minded and vivacious, she became a prominent London hostess. They had three sons (the eldest of whom, a colonel of hussars, died in France in 1917 from the effects of gas poisoning) and one daughter. ^[4]

Death
Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy died 8 December 1928 at the Villa Valhalla, Chemin de Benefiat and was buried in Le Grand Jas cemetery in Cannes, Departement des Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. He left an unsettled estate of £22,708.^[5][6]

Sources

1. ↑ Birth Registration: "England & Wales Births 1837-2006"
   Volume: 1; Page: 54
   FindMyPast Image - FindMyPast Transcription (accessed 16 January 2023)
   Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget birth registered Jan-Feb-Mar 1851 in St. George Hanover Square.
2. ↑ https://www.dib.ie/biography/paget-sir-arthur-henry-fitzroy-a7159 (accessed 17 January 2023)
3. ↑ "https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishinfantry/buffsarthurpaget.htm" (accessed 15 January 2023)
4. ↑ Annual Reg. (1851), 213; Burke, Peerage (1912), 2,383; Debrett's peerage (1920), 43; Times, 10 Dec. 1928 (obit.), 23 Feb. 1929 (will); Annual Reg., 1928 (obit.); WWW; A. P. Ryan, Mutiny at the Curragh (1956); James Fergusson, The Curragh incident (1964); A. T. Q. Stewart, The Ulster crisis (1967); Thomas Pakenham, The Boer war (1979); Patricia Jalland, The Liberals and Ireland: the Ulster question in British politics to 1914 (1980); Marquess of Anglesey, A history of the British cavalry, iv: 1899 to 1913 (1986); Ian F. W. Beckett (ed.), The army and the Curragh incident 1914 (1986); Anglesey, ibid., vii: The Curragh incident and the western front, 1914 (1996); Burke, ibid. (1999), 76 Publishing information DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.007159.v1 Originally published October 2009 as part of the Dictionary of Irish Biography Last revised October 2009 This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license Forename: Arthur, Henry, Fitzroy Surname: Paget Sir title: Sir Gender: Male Career: Military Born 1 March 1851 in England Died 9 December 1928 in France.
5. ↑ Beckett, Ian FW. " Paget, Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy (1851–1928)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edition, Sep 2011, accessed 20 October 2021 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
6. ↑ "Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current"
   URL: Find A Grave: Memorial #114503813
   Ancestry Record 60541 #2197876 (accessed 16 January 2023)
   Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget burial (died on 8 Dec 1928) in Cannes, Departement des Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

Also:

• Debrett, John, C. F. J. Hankinson, and Arthur G. M. Hesilrige. Debretts peerage, baronetage, knightage, and companionage ...: comprises information concerning persons bearing hereditary or courtesy titles, privy councillors, knights, companions of the various orders, and the collateral branches of all peers and baronets. London: Odhams Press, 1947.