Walter Douglas Phillips Patton-Bethune

General Walter Douglas Phillips Patton-Bethune (1821–1901) was a British soldier and landowner.

Life

Born in 1821 at Taunton, Somerset, he was the eldest son of Thomas Patton (1792-1876), a Captain in the Royal Navy who became a Somerset landowner, and his wife Matilda Winsloe. One of his great-grandmothers was Mary Bethune, who had married Colonel Henry Patton.

Entering the British Army in 1838 he became an Ensign by purchase in the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot.^[1] He served with this regiment in Malta and the West Indies, moving in 1846 as a Captain to the 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, with whom he served in all operations of the Eighth Kaffir War, commanding the Regiment from November 1851 until October 1852.

As a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel he fought in the Crimean War, being present at the Battle of Balaclava, the Battle of Inkerman and the Siege of Sevastopol, and during the Battle of Alma was with the staff of Lord Raglan. For his services there he was awarded the Ottoman Order of the Medjidie.

After further duties in India, he went on half-pay in 1864 but enjoyed further promotions, culminating in 1877 with the rank of full General. He was Colonel of The 74th Foot from 1876.

Around 1873 he inherited the mansion and estate of Clayton Priory in Sussex^[2] and in 1882 received royal permission to add the surname of Bethune after that of Patton.^[3]

Dying on 28 January 1901 at Clayton Priory, he was buried at the church of St John the Baptist in Clayton^[4] and his will was finally proved in London on 24 August 1903 showing effects of 12,000 pounds (worth about 1.2 million pounds in 2015).^[5][6]

Family

On 23 April 1855, in the British Embassy in Paris, he married Julia Elphinstone (1835–1909),^[7] daughter of Sir Howard Elphinstone, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Elizabeth Julia Curteis. They had five children.

References