Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Herbert, George Augustus
HERBERT, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, eleventh Earl of Pembroke and eighth Earl of Montgomery (1759–1827), general, eldest son of Henry Herbert, tenth earl of Pembroke [q. v.], was born 11 Sept. 1759. He was educated at Harrow School, and afterwards travelled in Switzerland and the north of Europe with his tutor, William Coxe [q. v.], the well-known archdeacon of Winchester. On 10 April 1775 he was appointed ensign in the 12th foot at Gibraltar, became lieutenant in 1777, and in January 1778 obtained his company in the old 75th (Prince of Wales's) foot, then raising and afterwards disbanded. He was transferred to the 1st royal dragoons in December the same year; became major 22nd light dragoons in 1782; and in 1783 was appointed lieutenant-colonel 2nd dragoon guards (Queen's Bays). He was returned to parliament for Wilton in 1784, but vacated his seat on being appointed vice-chamberlain of the royal household in 1785. He was again returned for Wilton in 1788 and 1790. He took his regiment to Flanders in 1793, and in command of the bays and 3rd dragoon guards was attached to a small corps of observation of Prussians and Austrians covering the left flank of the Prussian army during the siege of Valenciennes. He rejoined the Duke of York before Dunkirk, and at the head of four British and Hanoverian squadrons and some flying artillery dislodged a French post at Hundssluyt. He returned home on the death of his father in January 1794. He became a major-general in 1795 and colonel Inniskilling dragoons 1797; commanded a brigade at Canterbury in 1797-8, and at Salisbury in 1799, part of the latter time being in command of the south-west district. He became lieutenant-general in 1802, was made K.G. in 1805, governor of Guernsey in 1807, and in the same year was sent on a special mission as ambassador extraordinary to the court of Vienna, and became a full general in 1812. He was lord-lieutenant of Wiltshire. He died 26 Oct. 1827. By his improvements of the Wilton estates, at an outlay of 200,000l.,it is said that he trebled the rent-roll, which was 35,000l. on his succession to the title.
Lord Pembroke married, first, 8 April 1787, Elizabeth, daughter of Topham Beauclerk; she died 25 March 1793; secondly, 25 Jan. 1808, Catherine, only daughter of Count Woronzoff, sometime Russian ambassador in London and afterwards governor of southern Russia; she died 27 March 1856. By his first wife he had a son, Robert Henry, twelfth earl (1791-1862), and by his second wife a son, Sidney Herbert, first lord Herbert of Lea [q. v.], and five daughters.
[Doyle's Baronage, vol. i.; Foster's Peerage under ‘Pembroke;’ Cannon's Hist. Rec. 6th Inniskilling Dragoons; Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. ii. 380-4; Gent. Mag. 1793 i. 376, 1856 i. 515.]