Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington after "half a lifetime together, they had come to understand each other at the end". He had found consolation for his unhappy marriage in his warm friendship with the diarist Harriet Arbuthnot, wife of his colleague Charles Arbuthnot. Harriet's death in the cholera epidemic of 1834 was almost as great a blow to Wellington as it was to her husband. The two widowers spent their last years together at Apsley House. Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Deal on 14 September 1852. This was his residence as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Walmer Castle was said to have been
Cinque Ports Fortress Royal Engineers and signal companies of the Home Counties Division and a group of 'Kent and Sussex Fortress Companies'. These became the Sussex Fortress Royal Engineers based at Seaford, East Sussex, the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers based at Gillingham, and a company at Dover entitled the Cinque Ports Fortress Royal Engineers by 1910. At the outbreak of World War I the unit consisted of a single Electric Lights Company based at 16 Bench Street, Dover, forming part of South East Coastal Defences. With the expansion of the army the Cinque Ports company contributed personnel to the 1/6th and 1/7th Kent Fortress Companies