Arthur Wellesley Torrens Arthur Wellesley Torrens Sir Arthur Wellesley Torrens (1809–1855) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He reached the rank of major-general. He was the second son of Major-general Sir Henry Torrens and his wife Sarah, daughter of Robert Patton, governor of St. Helena, born on 18 August 1809; he was a godson of the Duke of Wellington. In 1819 he was appointed a page of honour to the Prince Regent. Torrens passed through the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and obtained a commission as ensign in the Grenadier Guards, becoming lieutenant on 14 April 1825. He was appointed adjutant of
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