Wellington Stapleton-Cotton, 2nd Viscount Combermere

Colonel Wellington Henry Stapleton-Cotton, 2nd Viscount Combermere (24 November 1818 – 1 December 1891) was a British soldier and Conservative politician.

Early life Combermere was born at Duncombe House, St. Thomas, Barbados, the son of Field Marshal Stapleton Stapleton-Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere (then Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands), and Caroline, daughter of William Greville.

He was educated at Audlem Grammar School, Cheshire, and Eton College, then briefly attended Christ Church, Oxford in 1837 before entering the army.

Military and political career Stapleton-Cotton was commissioned into the 7th Hussars in 1837, and served in Canada, where the regiment took part in suppressing the Papineau Rebellion, before returning to England in 1841, when he exchanged his commission into the 1st Life Guards. He was promoted captain in 1846, and major in 1850,

In 1847, he was returned to Parliament for Carrickfergus, a seat he held until 1857. In 1865 he succeeded his father in the viscountcy and entered the House of Lords.

As owner of Combermere Abbey, his Cheshire seat, he twice rented the mansion to the Empress Elisabeth of Austria in 1881 and 1882. He enabled alterations to be made for her stays, accommodating her 80-strong retinue, which were paid for by the Emperor.

Personal life In 1844 Lord Combermere married Susan Alice Sitwell. She was the daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 2nd Baronet of Renishaw Hall and Susan Tait, sister of The Most Rev. & Rt. Hon. Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury. Before her death in 1869, they were the parents of two sons and two daughters:

Robert Wellington Stapleton-Cotton (1845–1898), who married Isabel Marian (née Chetwynd) Poole, the former wife of the High Sheriff of Cheshire Cudworth Halsted Poole of Marbury Hall. Lord Combermere's father, the 1st Viscount, had been involved in a mysterious incident himself several years earlier while serving as Governor of Barbados when he had the Chase Vault opened and carefully examined in search of an explanation for the "moving coffins" there.