Arms, titles, honours and styles of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington William selected the name Wellington for its similarity to the family surname of Wellesley, which derives from the village of Wellesley in Somerset, not far from that of Wellington. Since he did not return to England until the Peninsular War was over, he was awarded all his patents of nobility in a single day. The Duke of Wellington stood as godfather to Queen Victoria's seventh child, Prince Arthur, in 1850. Prince Arthur was also born on the first of May; and as a toddler, young Arthur was encouraged to remind people that the Duke of Wellington was his godfather. The
Richard Wellesley, 6th Earl Cowley Richard Wellesley, 6th Earl Cowley Richard Francis Wellesley, 6th Earl Cowley (12 June 1946–13 December 1975), known as Viscount Dangan from 1962 to 1968, was a British Conservative politician. Cowley was the only son of Denis Arthur Wellesley, 5th Earl Cowley, and his first wife Elizabeth Anne (née Papillon), and was educated at Eton. He succeeded in the earldom on his father's early death in 1968 and took his seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords. He served briefly as a Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under Edward Heath from January to March 1974.