Wellington, Somerset 1215 and during the Middle Ages it grew as a centre for trade on the road from Bristol to Exeter. Major rebuilding took place following a fire in the town in 1731, after which it became a centre for cloth-making. Wellington gave its name to the first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, who is commemorated by the nearby Wellington Monument. Following his victory at the Battle of Talavera in the Peninsular War, Arthur Wellesley was offered a peerage. The question was what title should he take. His brother, Richard Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, looked around and discovered that a manor
Arthur Soames (politician) Arthur Soames (politician) Arthur Wellesley Soames (30 November 1852 – 2 November 1934) was a British Liberal politician and architect. Soames was born in Brighton, the son of William Aldwin Soames. He was educated at Brighton College, the public school which his father had founded in 1845, and in 1871 he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge where he obtained his BA in 1877 and MA in 1881. In 1876 he married Eveline, the daughter of T. Horsman Coles from Ore in East Sussex. They had two sons and two daughters. Both sons, Gilbert and Maurice, were killed during the