General Sir William John Codrington, GCB (26 November 1804 – 6 August 1884) was a British Army officer and politician who served in the Crimean War.

[1] He found himself at Varna in the summer of 1854, when the English and French armies were encamped there, either as a mere visitor and colonel unattached, as Kinglake says, or in command of the battalion of Coldstream guards, when his promotion to the rank of major general was gazetted on 20 June 1854.

The light division got too far ahead and fell into confusion in crossing the Alma, and Codrington, seeing that his men could not lie still and be slaughtered by the Russian guns, boldly charged the great redoubt and carried it.

Codrington arranged with General Edwin Markham, commanding the 2nd Division, the attack on the Redan of 8 September, but blame seems to have been showered more freely on Sir James Simpson, who commanded in chief since Lord Raglan's death, than on the actual contrivers of that fatal attack.

[1] On his return to England, Codrington was promoted lieutenant general, appointed colonel of the 54th Foot, and in 1857 was elected MP for Greenwich, in the liberal interest.

[1] Codrington died on 6 August 1884, in his eightieth year, at Danmore Cottage, Heckfield, Winchfield in Hampshire.

[2] In 1868 he stood for the seat of Greenwich, replacing fellow Liberal Sir William Bright who had declined to stand.