MEMOIR 
OF 
GENERAL SIR WILLIAM GATOR, K.C.B., ROYAL ARTILLERY. 
William Cator was the second son of Joseph Cator, Esq. of Beckenham, Kent. 
He was bom 14th April, 1785. 
He was educated at Westminster, whence he joined the Royal Military Academy 
at Woolwich, which he entered as an East Indian Cadet, 13th June, 1800. lie 
did not however join the Company’s service, but received his first Commission in 
the Royal Regiment of Artillery, 7th May, 1803. 
Soon after joining at Woolwich he was ordered to the Channel Islands, and was 
promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant while serving at Jersey, 12th September of 
the same year (1803). 
He got his first appointment to the Horse Artillery in 1803, when he was 
posted to Major Charles Godfrey’s Troop, with which he was quartered for some 
time in Dublin with the late Major Bean, 2nd Captain, Sir John Conroy, and 
Major Green as brother Subalterns, and many were the amusing anecdotes he told of 
those days. While he was quartered in Ireland, Cator had an opportunity of 
indulging in his early passion for field sports, and began to shew that aptitude for 
them which in later years was so exemplified by the manner in which, he at several 
different periods himself handled foxhounds. 
He was promoted to the rank of 2nd Captain 1st May, 1809, and served in the 
Walcheren expedition which sailed for the Scheldt under the command of the Earl 
of Chatham in July of the same year; being present at the capture of Middleburg, 
and at the siege and destruction of Elushing. During that expedition he became 
very intimate with Lord Eitzroy Somerset, a friendship which terminated only with 
Lord Raglan’s death. 
On Cator’s return to England in November of the same year, he was ordered to 
proceed with his company to join Lord Wellington’s army in Portugal. The ship 
in which he sailed from Portsmouth was nearly lost during the passage of the 
Bay of Biscay. 
On arriving at Lisbon, his destination was changed, and he was ordered to join 
the Brigade of Infantry under Major-General the Honorable William Stewart, and 
proceed to Cadiz, on which city Soult was advancing, the force arrived only 
just in time to save the city from falling into Soult’s hands. 
The head-quarters of the brigade were established on the Isla de Leon, and 
steps were immediately taken for fortifying the place. 
Captain Cator was appointed Adjutant to the Artillery of the Brigade by Colonel 
Duncan, then in command, and was frequently mentioned by that officer in the 
most commendable manner to the Master-General of the Ordnance. 
After some time he resigned the Adjutantcy owing to a misunderstanding with 
his Colonel, and fortunate was it for him he did so, as the officer who succeeded 
