Background
Macready was born in Birmingham, the son of William Macready the elder, an actor-manager and Christina Ann Birch, an actress.
Macready was born in Birmingham, the son of William Macready the elder, an actor-manager and Christina Ann Birch, an actress.
Rugby School.
He also had two sisters, Lititia (b 3 December 1796) and Ellen (b April 1797). Educated at Rugby School, he joined the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Regiment of Foot, as a volunteer, in 1814, at the age of 16. Macready later served under Lord Lynedoch in Holland.
At the Battle of Waterloo, when still only an ensign, he commanded the light company towards the close of the battle.
At the end of the battle he was the only surviving officer, along with 16 men, of the original three officers and 51 mentor Foreign his gallantry he was promoted to lieutenant on 20 July 1815 and remained with the Army of Occupation at the end of the Waterloo Campaign.
In one of his private journals Macready tells of his experiences at Waterloo. He is quoted from in Henry Havelick"s Three Main Military Questions of the Day published in 1867, in order to show repeated cavalry failures in their attempts to break through infantry squares well provided with ammunition in addition to bayonets.
"Here come these fools again," Macready remarks at the repeated charges of the French curassiers in the face of significant firepower from the infantry square.
He was at the siege of Asseerghur in Central India during the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1818), and afterwards became military secretary to Sir John Wilson, the governor of Ceylon. He was subsequently aide-de-camp to Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, James Mackenzie. Macready was promoted from captain to major by purchase on half pay and unattached on 22 November 1839.
He died at Clevedon on 4 November 1848 and is buried in Saint Peter"s Churchyard, Leckhampton, Gloucestershire.