Museums

Portrait of Mary Anne Wellington who had been a daughter, a wife and then a widow of men in uniform.

Born 18 April 1789, Mary was a daughter of Private George Wellington of the Royal Artillery then stationed in Gibraltar. She met her future husband Thomas Hewitt, a clarinet player in the regimental band of the 48th Regiment of Foot there, and married him on the 15 December 1805. For nearly four decades she travelled as part of the regiment through the Napoleonic Wars and later to Australia. She lived in Norwich from 1845 onwards and was reduced to poverty as a widow when her biography was written by the Reverend Richard Cobbald to raise money for her. It is now a useful social history of the life of the Regiment from 1797 to 1844.