George Wellesley had been under his command at the time, ran aground at Pearl Rock off Gibraltar in July 1871. He was appointed First Naval Lord in November 1877 and in that capacity he secured a considerable increase in naval construction, for example on the Colossus class battleships, although some of these ships were of doubtful quality. Born the son of Gerald Valerian Wellesley (brother of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington) and Lady Emily Mary (daughter of Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan), Wellesley joined the Royal Navy in 1828. After initial training at the Royal Navy College at Portsmouth and
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley Wellesley was appointed ambassador to Spain. He landed at Cádiz just after the Battle of Talavera, and tried unsuccessfully to bring the Spanish government into effective co-operation with his brother, who, through the failure of his allies, had been forced to retreat into Portugal. A few months later, after the duel between George Canning and Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, and the resignation of both, Wellesley accepted the post of Foreign Secretary in Spencer Perceval's cabinet. Unlike his brother Arthur, he was an eloquent speaker, but was subject to inexplicable "black-outs" when he was apparently unaware of his surroundings. He held