Vilmos Lázár

Vilmos Lázár Lázár Vilmos
Born	October 24, 1817
Died	October 6, 1849 (aged 31)
Rank	Colonel

Vilmos Lázár (October 24, 1817, Nagybecskerek – October 6, 1849, Arad) was a honvéd colonel in the Hungarian Army. He was executed for his part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and is considered one of the 13 Martyrs of Arad. Vilmos Lázár was, according to historian Gabor Bona, from a family of Hungarian nobility of Armenian descent.

Life

Born into an Armenian-Hungarian noble family, he began his military career in 1834 when he entered into the service of the 34th infantry of the Imperial army. Emperor Ferdinand I commissioned him as a second lieutenant in the Hussar regiment,but in 1844 he retired from a military career, and his wife, Baroness Mary Revitzky Zemplén retired with him to his estate farm. In 1847 he was a railway company foreman.

As a result of the 1848 uprising, he volunteered his service into the Hungarian honved army. He was made a lieutenant of the Győr battalions on October 19, and promoted on November 13 to the captain of the battalion. He participated in the reorganization of the army in January 1849 under Perczel. From 1 February on, he served as the aide-de-camp of Major General Michael Répásy. Representing the general, he attended the March 3 meeting at Tiszafiired, where Gorgei Dembiński was forced to resign.

On 5 April he was appointed as commander of a brigade stationed in the Zemplén. His wife was responsible for watching the Galician province boundary and reporting any movements. At the end of the month the brigade reorganized in the Košice Upper Hungary Corps and he was ordered mid-June to become one of the Corps Commanders of a Division. He participated in the Dukla Pass battle against a Russian force between June 17 to 19 in a strategic pass. On July 16, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was highly engaged in the last battles of the War of Independence. On 12 August, General Bem promoted him to colonel, and instructed him to command the Upper Hungarian corps formed from the remains of the 9th. After a heavy defeat and the splitting of the forces on August 19, a group about 4,600 strong was forced to surrender to imperial troops, Vilmos included.

Death

Although he only attained the rank of colonel, as a separate corps commander in the War of Independence he was considered of equal participation as the generals in the Arad military court marial. He was sentenced to execution by firing squad, seen as merciful to death by hanging. He was shot among the first group of martyrs executed.

His bones were uncovered in 1913 at the Arad fortress cemetery. His body was then laid to rest in the crypt with a monument to him as a martyr. In 1844, the widowed wife of Baron Reviczky Mary, whose first husband was Dévaványa Halasy Joseph (1784–1844), bore him three children. His widow died in Budapest in 1873 at the age of 62, when his son Imre Székely was visiting.

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