Sir Francis Seymour, 1st Baronet

General Sir Francis Seymour, 1st Baronet, GCB (1813–1890) was a British Army officer and courtier.

"Albert's Seymour", as caricatured by Carlo Pellegrini in Vanity Fair, 1877

Born 2 August 1813, in Lisburn, County Down, Seymour was the eldest son of Henry Augustus Seymour (1771–1847) and his wife, Margaret (died 1867).[1] In 1834, he was commissioned as an ensign in the 19th Regiment of Foot and promoted to lieutenant in 1837.[1] At the request of Leopold I of Belgium, Seymour accompanied Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on the latter's visit to Italy[1] in the winter of 1838–1839. Following Albert's marriage to Queen Victoria in 1840, Seymour became his Groom-in-Waiting, an office he continued as such after Albert's death in 1861,[1] to Victoria until 1876, when he became an Extra Groom-in-Waiting.

In 1840, Seymour was promoted to captain and exchanged to the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1842.[1] In 1854, he served with the Guards in the Crimean War and was present at the battles of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman.[1] He was wounded at Inkerman and later at the Siege of Sevastopol.[1] In 1854, he was brevetted colonel and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1857, having also received the Légion d'honneur (fourth class) and the Medjidie (fourth class).[1]

Promoted to major in 1858, lieutenant-colonel in 1863, and major-general in 1864, Seymour was made a baronet in 1869 and went on to command the troops in Malta from 1872 to 1874.[1] He was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1873, colonel of the 11th (North Devonshire) Regiment of Foot in 1874, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1875, and general in 1877.[1] He was also appointed Master of the Ceremonies in 1876 and sometime appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order.[1] He retired in 1881 after being promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath that year.[1]

On 25 August 1869, Seymour married Agnes Austin, the eldest daughter of H. D. Wickham, rector of Horsington, Somerset, and they had three daughters and one son,[1] Albert Victor Francis Seymour, who was born when Seymour was seventy-four years old and who later served as a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria. Seymour died at Kensington Palace, London, on 10 July 1890.[1] His baronetcy was inherited by his ten-year-old son.