Named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), a soldier and Tory politician statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures in his time. He was twice prime minister of the United Kingdom. He is among the commanders who won and ended the Napoleonic war when the coalition defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The Duke's peerage title comes from the market town of Wellington, Somerset, but his connection with the place is tenuous, to say the least, and he only visited it once. He acquired both the borough and manor of Wellington in 1812, but leased the borough back to the townspeople. He was made Duke of Wellington two years later. However, the purchase was managed by his elder brother, Richard Wellesley, 2nd Earl of Mornington, as Arthur was still abroad on military campaigns, and even when he did retire from the army, politics took over and his base was in London, so he never got to use the manor of Wellington as his country seat.