Major-General Villiers Hatton CB (8 October 1852 – 18 June 1914) was Commander of British Troops in South China.

Early life

Hatton was born on 8 October 1852. He was the son of Lt.-Col. Villiers La Touche Hatton (1824–1897) and Rosia Mary de Bathe (d. 1895). His father served as

High Sheriff of Wexford The High Sheriff of Wexford was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Wexford, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Irish Free State and replaced by the office of Wexford County Sheriff ...

from 1862 to 1863. His siblings were Rosia Mary Hatton, Madeline Frances Hatton (d. 1926), who married Maj.-Gen. Sir

Henry Mackinnon General Sir William Henry Mackinnon, (15 December 1852 – 17 March 1929) was a British Army General during World War I. Military career Henry Mackinnon was born in London on 15 December 1852. Educated at Rose Hill School and then Harrow Sch ...

(1852–1929), and William De Bathe Hatton (b. 1855). His paternal grandparents were Vice-Admiral Villiers Francis Hatton and Henrietta La Touche (d. 1866). His grandfather was the son of George Hatton and Lady Isabella Seymour-Conway (1755–1825), herself the daughter of

Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford (5 July 1718 – 14 June 1794) of Ragley Hall, Arrow, in Warwickshire, was a British courtier and politician who, briefly, was Viceroy of Ireland where he had substantial estates. Background ...

and Lady Isabella Fitzroy, a daughter of

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton (25 October 1683 – 6 May 1757) was a British peer and politician. Early life He was the only child and heir of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton (1663–1690) (an illegitimate son of King Charles II ...

Career

Hatton was commissioned into the

Grenadier Guards The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect ...

in 1870. He was made Instructor of

Musketry A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

in 1874 and

Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...

of his Regiment in 1884. He was appointed

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

of 1st Bn Grenadier Guards and in that capacity, having landed at Dakhla on 6 August 1898, took part in the

Nile Expedition The Nile Expedition, sometimes called the Gordon Relief Expedition (1884–1885), was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan. Gordon had been sent to Sudan to help the Egyptians withdraw their garr ...

during the

Mahdist War The Mahdist War (; 1881–1899) was fought between the Mahdist Sudanese, led by Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided One"), and the forces of the Khedivate of Egypt, initially, and later th ...

and was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. His period of service as commanding officer ended in January 1900, when he was placed on

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the E ...

. He became Commander of British Troops in South China in 1903. He retired in 1909 to

Berkeley Square Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent, ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Personal life

In 1897, he married Emily Burrall Hoffman (1861–1942).William I
/ref> Emily, an American, was the daughter of Harriet Bronson Willett (1839–1911) (granddaughter of Dr. Isaac Bronson) and Charles Burrall Hoffman (1821–1892), the son of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Ogden Hoffman and brother of Ogden Hoffman, Jr., a U.S. federal judge, in 1860.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatton, Villiers 1852 births 1914 deaths British Army major generals Companions of the Order of the Bath Grenadier Guards officers British Army personnel of the Mahdist War People from County Wexford British expatriates in China