Sir Charles Wills

General Sir Charles Wills, army officer, is buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey but he has no monument or gravestone. He died on 25th December 1741 aged 76. His coffin plate calls him:

Knight of the Bath, one of H.M.s Most Hon. Privy Council, General of Foot, Lieut. General in the service of the Empire, Lieut. General of the Ordnance, Colonel of H.M.s 1st regiment of Foot Guards and M.P. for Totnes, co. Devon.

In the Lady Chapel he has a rather worn stall plate as Knight of the Bath.

He was baptised in 1666 at St Gorran in Cornwall a son of Anthony Wills and his wife Jenofer. In 1689 he joined the army and made his way through the ranks and was a Lt. Colonel by 1697. He served in Spain and the West Indies. By 1705 he was a Colonel and commanded the defence of Lerida and was at the battles of Almenara and Saragossa. In 1710 he was captured and imprisoned but was back in England by 1715 fighting the Jacobites at the battle of Preston. On 17th June 1725 he was installed as a Knight of the Bath and attained the rank of General in 1730. He was governor of Berwick on Tweed and of Portsmouth and died unmarried. He bequeathed money to his nephew Richard Wills.

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

History of Parliament online