OFFICER//WATERLOO/CAVALRY (original) (raw)

OFFICER // WATERLOO // CAVALRY

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• THE RUSSIAN FRONT // LENINGRAD • ORDER OF THE ALEXANDER NEVSKY • THE EGYPT & SUDAN CAMPAIGN 1882 • THE BLACK WATCH/WATERLOO/OFFICER • THE SCOTS GREYS AT WATERLOO • WATERLOO // THE GUARDS • GOLD HONG KONG PLAGUE MEDAL GROUP • THE CRIMEA WAR // THE GUARDS • WATERLOO / ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY • THE CRIMEA WAR // LIGHT BRIGADE • THE BLACK WATCH/QUARTER BRAS • WATERLOO // THE GUARDS • THE RUSSIAN AIRBORNE/GALLANTRY • THE ZULU CAMPAIGN • WATERLOO STALL PLATE//MAJ. GEN. • RUSSIAN ORDER/WWII • THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN • THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR • KINGS GERMAN LEGION/WATERLOO • "THIN RED LINE" // THE CRIMEAN WAR • THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN • WATERLOO // THE LIFE GUARDS! • TRAFALGAR // THE VICTORY • WATERLOO GROUP//WOUNDED OFFICER • OFFICER//WATERLOO/CAVALRY • WATERLOO TO WELCH OFFICER • SCOTS GUARDS/WATERLOO • WATERLOO MEDAL TO THE FAMED 52ND. • WATERLOO // THE UNION BRIGADE • CRIMEA GROUP TO A CHARGER • WATERLOO CAVALRY//TRUMPETER • SPANISH AMERICAN WAR • FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION PARATROOPER • WATERLOO/SURGEON • WATERLOO/OFFICER/WOUNDED • MAJOR GEN. PONSONBY/GOLD MEDALS • 42nd BLACK WATCH/PIPER/WWI/M.M. • BOXER REBELLION // CHINA 1900 • POLAR/ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1910-13 • THE INDIAN MUTINY • SUBMARINE/WWII/ATLANTIC/BRITISH • SIR COLIN CAMPBELL/WATERLOO • HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY/WATEROO •

Battle Honours

According to author Anthony Baker " The award of battle honours is primarily a system by which the Sovereign recognises the presence of a regiment and its contribution to, a particular battle. Secondly, it provides a means for that regiment to publicize its past glories by displaying the names of these battles. An Honour is normally the name of a battle, the word battle being used in its broadest sense as a fight or hostilities between opposing armies or elements of them, shown on a regiment's Colours for all to see."

The first Battle Honour to be awarded to the British Army was actually for campaign service, not a battle, in Tangier between 1662 and 1680. The 1st Royal Dragoons and the 2nd Foot (the Queen's Regiment) were garrisoned there for eighteen years from 1662 but an increase in skirmishing activity led to the 1st Foot Guards, the Coldstream Guards and the 1st Foot (the Royal Scots) being sent out there during the last year of the period. The regiment therefore has the distinction of being granted this first honour.

The regiment has taken part in almost every major campaign and has been involved in many battles since its formation in 1656. it has been awarded seventy-eight Battle Honours, or Honorary Distinctions to give them their correct description. Forty-five are borne on the Colours of the Regiment. Below are listed the campaigns and battles that the regiment has been involved in since Tangier.

Adjutant-General of cavalry at Waterloo - The Household Regt. (wounded Waterloo). Wounded in Peninsular War. Ret. Lieut. Gen. 1837. See research for further details. Buried at Windsor castle in St. George's Church across from Queen Mom and the King. A marble stature of him with his medals are etched into the marble bust in the church across from the burial place of the Queen Mom and the King.

click on pictures to enlarge

Waterloo medal named to Colonel Sir. John Elley. Guards, K.C.B - The Most Honourable Order of The Bath (Military) neck badge (Hallmarked London 1814)., K.C.B. Breast Star in silver with applique centre in gold enamel, Gold medal with gold buckle Talavera named to Lieut. Colonel John Elley. (The Household Cavalry - (Oxford Blues).

Conditon: GVF or Better.

Deputy Adjutant-General to Lord Uxbridge and of the cavalry at Waterloo.

From "The Life of The Duke of Wellington".

"In the gallant charge with the heavy cavalry against the French Curiassiers by General Ponsonby, in which combat that heroic leader lost his life, Sir John Elley performed prodigies of valour. Possessed of an Herculean frame, he displayed the most astounding efforts of strength and daring intrepidity; many a gallent Cuirassier fell before and resistless sword of this fearless old soldier, who live some year afterwards to earn an hounoured reputation, by deeds of kindness and charity in after life; and died as full of years as of honour."

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Elley, Sir John 1839, Lieutenant-General, was, according to one statement, a native of Leeds, articled to a London solicitor, who enlisted in the Royal Horse Guards - then better known as the Oxford Blues - for his future advancement in which corps his farther found the means. Another, seemingly better authenticated statement, given in "Biographia Leodiensis", on the authority of the Rev. John Smithson, incumbent of Headingley, near Leeds, who died in 1835, is that Sir John Elley was bornin London, where his faterh kept an eating=house in Furnival's Inn Cellars, Holborn; that he was apprenticed ot Mr. John Gelderd of Meanwood Tannery, near Leeds. He was engaged to Anne Geldered, his master's daughter, and that he attended her funeral at Armley chapel in great grief. Whether this was before or after his enlistment does not appear. Like many other young soldier, Elley is said to have been very anxious to get out of the service again, but to have been dissuaded therefrom by the Rev. Mr. Smithson. The regimental records show the Elley enlisted in the Blues at Leeds 5 Nov. 1789, and that 4 June, 1790 he purchased a troop-quartermastership in the regiment, such warrent rank being then obtained by purchase, and on 6 June 1794, a cornetcy. He was acting-adjutant of the four troops of the Blues detached to Flanders with the Duke of York, with which he made the campaigns of 1793-5, and was particularly distinguished at the cavalry action at Cateau, 26th April, 1794. After his return from the continent he purchased a Lieutenancy in the regiment 26th June 1796, and a troop 26th Feb. 1801. He became Major 29th Nov. 1804, and Lieutenant-Colonel 6th March 1808, having purchased every step. He was employed on the Staff of General Staveley in the south of England during the invasion alarms of the beginning of the century, and was assistant adjutant-general of cavalry in Spain in 1808-9, when he was present at the affairs of Sahagun, Benevente, &c., 1909, and made the subsequent campaigns of 1809-14 in the Peninsula and south of France including the battle of Fuentes de Onoro. The Cavalry affair at Llerena, the battle of Salamanca, where he had two horse killed under him, and received a severe bayonet wound during the charge of Le Marchant's bridge. The battles of Vittoria, Orthez and Toulouse. As Adjutant-General of cavalry he was at Waterloo (where he was again wounded), and according to popular accounts he laid low more than one French Cuirassier in single combat. He was made K.C.B., and received numerous foreign decorations, including the Fourth Class of St. George of Russia (his name appears in the Kremlin in honor of his award given to him by the Czar). He became a Major-General in 1819, Governor of Galway in 1826, was employed some years on the staff in the south of Ireland. Appointed Colonel 17th Lancers in 1829. In 1835 he was returned to Parliament for Windsor as a staunch supporter of Sir Robert Peel. He became Lieutenant-General in 1837. Elley died at his seat, Cholderton Lodge, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, 23rd Jan. 1839. He was buried in the Chapel Royal, Windsor. By his will he left two to the mess-plate for his regiment. Because he died before the MGS medal was issued he did not receive one.

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This regiment, despite its Royal connections, actually started life as a Parliamentarian Cavalry Regiment under an officer named Unton Crook. The fall of the Commonwealth in 1660 saw this regiment pledge its allegiance to the newly restored Charles II. At first, the King was keen to keep this regiment together with its new Royalist commanding officer, Daniel O'Neal. However, the new parliament, with memories of the bloody Civil War fresh in its mind, refused to sanction payments for any standing armies. This could have been the end of the regiment had it not been for an abortive rising in 1661. The attempt of the 'Fifth Monarchy' to overthrow the monarchy gave the King the perfect excuse to re-raise a number of regiments in order to protect himself. The Royal Regiment of Horse joined the Lifeguards, the Grenadier Guards and the Coldstream Guards as all being raised specifically to protect the Royal Household from any threat, internally or externally.

During their parliamentarian days, the regiment wore dark blue coats. When the regiment was re-raised in 1661, the Colonel was the Earl of Oxford, Aubrey de Vere, whose own personal livery was also blue. The regiment therefore quickly took on the nickname of 'The blues' that still partially lives on to the present day.

During the battle of Waterloo, Wellington's regiment was brigaded with the Life Guards and the 1st King's Dragoon Guards. They took part, together with the Union brigade, in the massive extended line charge against the French. It was a very effective operation which threw out of the way the French curarriers advancing in support of d'Erlon's left and crashed into the left and rear of the Left-hand French division. Halting the French advance. The Household brigade also had the sense to limit their advances, unlike the Union Brigade, which paid dearly for its over enthusiasm.

Ex Major S.J. Tombs collection (Glendingings 1910), and W. Phillips collection (Glendingings 1925). In both cases the group was sold with a K.C.H. set in addition. Elley's Gold Cross has never been on the market, is neither in the family nor in a museum, and is believed lost.

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The Household cavalry was composed of 3 regiments - the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, and the Royal Horse Guards ("The Blues"). These regiments did not see action in the Peninsular War until the end of 1812. At that time, they wore a helmet with a flowing horsehair mane. The horsehair mane was changed in 1814 to a woolen crest which was coloured dark blue over red (see illustration above). The new helmet was worn at Waterloo.

The uniform of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards was a scarlet jacket with blue facings on the cuffs which were usually obscured by their white gauntlets.

The Royal Horse Guards wore a blue jacket - hence their nickname, "The Blues". They had red facings on collar and cuffs.

On campaign, the household cavalry wore grey trousers (overalls) with a red stripe.

At Waterloo, the 3 regiments of household cavalry fielded 2 squadrons each - totalling 696 men - i.e an average of 116 men per squadron

SIR JOHN ELLEY IS BURIED AT ST. GEORGE CHAPEL ACROSS FROM THE QUEEN MOM AND HER LATE HUSBAND THE KING.

The Memorial Chapel of George VI was designed by George Pace and it projects beyond the the north choir aisle. It takes the form of a concrete octagon and is lit with windows designed by John Piper. The king's tomb is set in the centre of the chapel beneath a black marble slab. Beside the king, reunited with her husband after fifty years, is Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Outside the chapel is a memorial tablet inscribed with the lines of the poem God Knows by M.L. Haskins, which the King quoted in his Christmas Day broadcast of 1939:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I may tread safey into the unknown

And he replied:

Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God, That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.

The chapel of St. George at Windsor Castle was made a Chapel Royal by King Edward III in 1348. The office of Dean was, till the reign of Henry VI held by a dignitary designated by the name of "Custos." John Arundel, in Henry IV's reign, being the first to bear the title of "Dean." At first, the chapel was dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor, but gradually, owing to its connection with the Order of the Garter, St. George superseded the former patron saint. Later on, Henry VII had intended to make this chapel the tomb of his race, and the work was actually commenced, when the King turned his attention to Westminster. Henry VIII presented the incomplete extension to Wolsey and, about 1524, the Cardinal employed Benedetto of Florence to build a sumptuous sarcophagus of black marble, decorated with figures of copper gilt for his own use. After his disgrace, Henry intended to convert it for himself, but the money ran out and the magnificent metalwork lay neglected till the governorships of Colonel Venn and Colonel Whichcott. These functionaries sold various figures and images as old brass, and realised a very handsome sum by the transaction. In 1805, the marble sarcophagus was removed to St. Paul's, to mark the grave of Lord Nelson.

In 1686, when King James II was misruling the land, he expended some �700 on repairing the chapel and in solemnizing high mass. In George III's reign, the chapel was made the Royal Mausoleum and Princess Amelia was the first to be interred in it. His wife, his sister and six of his children and grandchildren were buried in the vault before George himself. There is room for forty-nine coffins, and already twenty-one have been placed in it, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale having been the last. Although Prince Albert was buried at Frogmore, Wolsey's tomb-house was selected as the site for the magnificent memorial in his honour. The interior of the chapel is lined with marble and mosaic, the walls are covered with reliefs, the windows are of stained glass. The cenotaph stands in front of the magnificent altar and supports a recumbent statue, a personification of the Christian soldier described by St. Paul, of white marble, the face being a portrait of the Prince. A hound, a portrait of the Prince's favourite dog, Eos, sits at his feet. This chapel remains now as the Albert Memorial Chapel, one of the most splendid monuments of the Victorian age.

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The class of award was based upon the rank of the recipient: