Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 21 March 1813), was an Anglo-Irish soldier who was killed during the Peninsular War in 1813.
Wellesley was born in Dublin, into the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. He was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. He was a colonel by 1796, and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general (since 1802), won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803.
Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, where he ascended to field marshal after the Siege of Valencia.
Wellesley's death arrived in one of the most famous battles of the Peninsular War: The Battle of Vitoria.
Wellesley's army charged out of the city but the French unleashed fire, hitting and instantly killing Wellesley. He was succeeded by Rowland Hill.