George Hill

Lord George Augusta Hill (9 December 1801 – 6 April 1879) was an Anglo-Irish military officer, politician and landowner. Hill was the posthumous son of the 2nd Marquess of Downshire and his wife Mary, Marchioness of Downshire, granddaughter of the 1st Baron Sandys. Lord George was born three months after his father's death by suicide. Military and political career He entered the British Army in May 1817, initially a cornet in the Royal Horse Guards, promoted to lieutenant in 1820. He transferred to the Royal Irish Dragoons as a captain in 1825. In April 1830 he became aide-de-camp to Sir John Byng, Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland, at the rank of major, but on 6 July he took half-pay. In the 1830 general election, Hill was elected MP for Carrickfergus, unseating Sir Arthur Chichester, Bt. Hill's brother, the 3rd Marquess of Downshire, was a minor landowner in Carrickfergus; Lord George had been proposed as a candidate there in the 1826 general election, but had withdrawn in Chichester's favour, stating that he had been unaware of the nomination.