Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet

General Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet GCB GCH (10 August 1766 – 8 April 1842) was a General in the British Army and the Governor of Gibraltar.

Military career

Houston was commissioned into the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot in 1781. He commanded the 58th Regiment of Foot at the Capture of Minorca in 1798. Later he commanded a Brigade at the Siege of Alexandria for which he received the Turkish Order of the Crescent, second class (KC). He also commanded the 7th Division during the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro in 1811 and at the Siege of Badajoz in 1812. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth and General Officer Commanding South-West District in January 1814.

Houston was Governor of Gibraltar from 8 April 1831 to 28 February 1835. He set up the first official free school on Flat Bastion Road in Gibraltar whilst he was governor in 1832. By the end of his career in the British Army he became a General in 1837.

From 1825 to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 he served as a Groom of the Bedchamber to both King George IV and King William IV.

He was created a baronet on 19 July 1836.

He died at Bromley Hill on 8 April 1842 and was interred in the catacombs at West Norwood Cemetery.

Personal life

On 5 November 1808 he married Lady Jane Maitland, the fourth daughter of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale and widow of Samuel Long, who was the brother of Lord Farnborough. William and Mary had two sons together, Sir George Augustus Frederick Houston (b.1809), an army officer and William, who became a captain in the 10th Hussars. William's daughter was a prolific writer, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun. Lady Jane died on 1 June 1833.

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