George Augustus Wetherall was born in 1788 at Penterry, Hampshire. He was the son of General Sir Frederick Wetherall for whom he worked as ADC in 1811 during the conquest of Java. He had attended RMC Sandhurst and been commissioned since 1803 seeing active service in 1810. Initially he was a lieutenant in the 7th Royal Fusiliers but exchanged into the 1st Royal Regiment as a captain on 13 May 1805. He served in Madras as military secretary to the Commander-in-Chief from 1822 to 1825. In 1826 he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate General in India. He was Lieutenant-colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment from 1828 and took them to Canada during the Rebellion of 1837-38. They fought the Battle of Saint-Charles and brought back the rebels’ Colonne de la Liberté along with many prisoners.
Colonel Wetherall was appointed CB, and having relinquished command of the 2nd Battalion, was given the job of Deputy Adjutant-General in Canada from 1843 to 1850. He returned to Britain in 1850 and was DAQMG at Horse Guards, and ADC to the Queen, and from 1854 he was Adjutant-General, until 1860, during which time he was promoted to Lieutenant-General, in 1857. He was appointed GOC Northern District of England in 1860. His last posting was Governor of RMC Sandhurst from 1865. He was appointed Colonel of the 84th Regiment on 15 June 1854 and made Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1865.
He was married in 1812 to Frances Diana Denton, in Calcutta. They had five children, all daughters. He died at Sandhurst on 8 April 1868. The portrait is of the young Captain Wetherall in the uniform of an ADC while he was serving on the staff of his father in 1811.
