General Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet GCB GCH KC (10 August 1766 – 8 April 1842) was a British Army officer and Governor of Gibraltar.

Houston saw no more active service in the Napoleonic Wars, with a series of staff positions culminating in him serving as acting Governor of Gibraltar in 1832.

[1] By the start of the French Revolutionary War in February 1793, the regiment was back in England, and they were soon sent to serve in the Flanders campaign.

[5] Later on, he commanded a brigade at the sieges of Alexandria and Cairo, for which he received the Turkish Order of the Crescent, second class (KC).

[4] Houston was promoted to colonel on 29 April 1802 during the Peace of Amiens, commanding a brigade first at Malta, and then at Brighton in order to protect against any possible French invasion upon the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803.

The division entered combat for the first time at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May, where his men were crucial in halting a dangerous advance of French cavalry.

[5][4] Houston left the peninsula on 1 July when his health began to deteriorate and was given command of the South-Western District instead, as well as becoming Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth.

[7] Houston was promoted to lieutenant general on 4 June 1814 and as a part of the victory celebrations of 1815 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.