Lieutenant-General Sir William Brereton KCB KH (29 December 1789 – 27 July 1864)[1] was a British Army officer of the nineteenth century who served as colonel-commandant of the 4th Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery in the 1860s.
During the greater part of the time, he was one of the subalterns of the famous "H Troop" of the Royal Horse Artillery commanded by Major W. Norman Ramsay, with which he was severely wounded at Waterloo.
[7] During the early part of the Crimean War, Brereton, who was then on the strength of the horse brigade at Woolwich, was present with the Black Sea fleet, as a guest on board HMS Britannia, carrying the flag of his relative, Vice-Admiral Sir James Dundas, and directed the fire of her rockets in the attack upon the forts of Sevastopol on 17 October 1854.
[9] Brereton, having had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general a few days before,[10] died at his chambers in the Albany, London, on 27 July 1864, aged seventy-four.
In his will, executed on 10 April 1850, and proved on 16 August 1864 (personalty sworn under £25,000), he left the sum of £1000, the interest to be applied in perpetuity to encourage the game of cricket among the non-commissioned officers of horse and foot artillery stationed at Woolwich.