Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death. Wellesley was born into an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family in Ireland as The Hon. Arthur Wesley, the third of five surviving sons (fourth otherwise) of Anne and Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington. His mother was the eldest daughter of The 1st Viscount Dungannon. As such, he belonged to the Protestant Ascendancy. His biographers mostly follow the same contemporary newspaper evidence in saying that he was born on 1 May 1769, the day before he was baptised. His birthplace is uncertain. He was most likely born at his parents' townhouse, 24 Upper Merrion
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.