Stanley Muttlebury - Waterloo

Waterloo

Stanley Muttlebury was also a great-nephew of Colonel George Muttlebury, C.B. and K.W., 69th Regiment of Foot (The South Lincolnshire's)(b. Brighton, Sussex, 1776; d. 1854, Maida Hill), who served at the Battle of Waterloo. On the battlefield, Major Muttlebury of the 69th's 2nd Battalion (later to become a lieutenant-colonel as he was promoted in brevet) took over command following the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Morice, making the best of a difficult situation. Conflicting orders from the Prince of Orange left the men of the 5th Brigade in a vulnerable position at Quatre Bras, where there were heavy losses and hand-to-hand fighting in the squares (square formations then employed in the British Army). The Colonel's coolness under fire was subsequently recognised by the British government. He was also made a Knight Commander, fourth class, of the newly instituted Willem's Order, by the King of The Low Countries (Gentleman's Magazine, 1815, p. 451, col. 2; and Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1820, p. 1450), according to a despatch from the Duke of Wellington writing from Paris on 8 October 1815.

Colonel Muttlebury was twice married, first, by licence, at Eling, Hampshire, in 1799 to Ann Barclay (d. 1825 Gentleman's Magazine), by whom he had three children all baptised at Chatham, Kent: James Eyre Muttlebury (1800), Ann Margaret Muttlebury (1802), and Frances Muttlebury (1808). Next, on 31 October 1828, at Christ Church, St Marylebone, London, when he resided in St Pancras, London, he wed, also by licence, the widowed Catherine Brown, of Cavendish place, Bath (Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1828, p. 462, col. 1. N.B. groom's name spelt Mattlebury, in error) By this second wife (who died 3 February 1862, aged 83 The Annual Register, p. 473), he had a son George Augustus Muttlebury (born 1830; died 1893, Bristol, Gloucestershire) who played for Lansdown (1852–1863) the Marylebone Cricket Club (1860–1861). In the latter club's Lord's match of 21 May 1860, Frederick Lillywhite's Cricket scores and Biographies, from 1746 to 1826 (p. 358) erroneously cites him as G.A. Nuttlebury, of Major Boothby's side. In fact, the name Nuttlebury is a fictional one appearing both in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, as a place name, and in Charles Dickens's Mrs Lirriper, as the name of a character.

Another discrepancy appears in the official record as to how Col. Muttlebury was styled. His will in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury referred to him as though he were accorded the accolade of a British knight, viz.:

Will of Sir George Muttlebury, Lieutenant Colonel late of Her Majesty's sixty ninth Regiment, of the City of Bath, Somerset, proved 3 February 1854 (TNA Catalogue reference PROB 11/2186) N.B. Some confusion does exist in the style of honours granted to citizens of one nation by the government of another. So despite Sir George Muttlebury and his wife Lady Catherine Muttlebury being recognized and addressed in some European quarters (predominantly the Dutch) by such titles, the honour - not having come from the British government - carried no automatic right to the descendants.