William Villettes

General William Anne Villettes (20 August 175413 July 1808) was a senior officer of the British Army during the early nineteenth century. His career saw service in the Mediterranean, particularly during the Invasion of Corsica in 1794 and at the Malta Protectorate after British occupation in 1800. He died in 1808 while serving as military commander in British Jamaica and is buried at Half Way Tree.

Life Villettes was born in 1754 to a Huguenot family, the son of diplomat Arthur Villettes, British ambassador to the Old Swiss Confederacy at Bern. He was educated in Bath, Somerset and then at the University of St Andrews, but subsequently persuaded his father to purchase a commission in the 10th Light Dragoons in 1775. He remained with the regiment until 1787, when he became a major in the 12th Light Dragoons. For most of this period he served as aide to Sir William Pitt in Ireland, until in 1791 he became the lieutenant colonel of the 69th Regiment of Foot.