Severus William Lynam Stretton

Severus Stretton
Severus Stretton's portrait at the Durham Light Infantry Museum
Born	7 November 1783 Nottingham
Died	22 November 1884 Southampton
Nationality	British
Employer	British Army
Known for	Lt. Colonel
Parent(s)	William Stretton

Lieutenant-Colonel Severus William Lynam Stretton (7 November 1792 – 22 November 1884) was a British Army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars.

He was the youngest child of William Stretton and was baptised at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham on 29 May 1793. His name of Severus followed his parents habit of naming their children with unusual names that begin with "S". He was their second child called Severus as an earlier child had died young ten years before.

On 24 October 1851 he married the Hon. Catherine Adela de Courcy, youngest daughter of John Stapleton de Courcy, 28th Baron Kingsale. There were seven children from the marriage which survived him including:

He died at Southampton on 22 November 1884.

He obtained a commission in the Nottinghamshire Militia in Plymouth in 1810, and accompanied the regiment to Ireland. In 1812 he obtained an ensigncy in the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry), and joined the regiment in Portugal, serving in the second Peninsular campaign of 1812–13.

Having been severely wounded at the Battle of Vittoria on 21 June 1813, by two musket balls which lodged in his body. He was removed, in a very precarious state, to England. (Prior to this, one of the balls was extracted, but the other, at different periods, was a source of great trouble and pain, relieved only by severe surgical operations until it was successfully extracted in 1870.) The medical treatment he received at his father’s house at Lenton Priory restored him so far that after twelve months he was enabled to rejoin his regiment stationed in Ireland.

He accompanied the same regiment to Canada in 1818, and in 1825 was promoted to an unattached company, shortly after which he exchanged to the 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot, and joined it at Gibraltar. He was promoted major in 1832. He succeeded to the lieutenant-colonelcy and command of this regiment in 1842, having accompanied it to the West Indies and Nova Scotia, from whence he returned with it in 1843. He had, in the meantime, inherited the Lenton property from his brother Sempronius Stretton but never resided there.