page_title: Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill
section_title: Waterloo and later career
hierarchical_section_title: Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill / Waterloo and later career
caption_attribution_description: Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill, by William Salter (died 1875). See source website for additional information. This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. All images in this batch have been confirmed as author died before 1939 according to the official death date listed by the NPG.
context_page_description: General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill, GCB, GCH was a British Army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars as a trusted brigade, division and corps commander under the command of the Duke of Wellington. He became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1828.
context_section_description: At the Battle of Waterloo Hill commanded the II Corps. He led the charge of Sir Frederick Adam's brigade against the Imperial Guard towards the end of the battle. For some time it was thought that he had fallen in the melee. He escaped unwounded, and after the battle wrote to his sister, "I verily believe there never was so tremendous a battle fought as that at Waterloo." Thereafter he continued with the army in France until its withdrawal in 1818.
  He received several awards from allied nations after the battle. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 4 January 1815 and on 21 August 1815 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of Maria Theresa of Austria  and Knight of St George of Russia. On 27 August 1815 the Dutch King William I made him a Commander of the exclusive Military Order of William. At the Coronation of George IV in 1821, Lord Hill bore the Standard of England in the procession from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey. From 1828 to 1842, he succeeded the Duke of Wellington as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. He was also appointed Governor of Plymouth on 18 June 1830 and became Viscount Hill of Almaraz on 22 September 1842.
  A keen foxhunter, Hill was master of the North Shropshire Foxhounds until 1823. The pack exists to this day and hunts the north of the County, including the grounds of his birthplace, Hawkstone Hall. He later shared the Mastership with Sir Bellingham-Graham and Sir Edward Smythe, the hounds at this time being kennelled two miles south-east of Hawkstone Hall. Hill also formed the Hawkstone Otter Hunt around 1800, which was maintained and hunted by successive Lords. He served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary at Shrewsbury in 1825, laying the foundation stone of a major rebuild of the hospital in 1827.
  He died at Hardwicke Grange, Hadnall, Shropshire on 10 December 1842. He is buried in the churchyard at Hadnall.
caption: Hill ready for the annual Waterloo anniversary banquet at Apsley House in 1836
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