Note 13 — HISTORICAL RECORD (continued 2)

The Honourable William Ponsonby, (son of Lord Ponsonby,) after holding the commissions of ensign in Captain Bulwer's independent company, lieutenant in Captain Davis's independent company, and captain in the eighty-third regiment, was appointed major in the Loyal Irish Fencibles, in December, 1794: in March, 1798 he was removed to the majority of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and he served with his regiment in Ireland during the rebellion, which broke out in the following summer. On the 1st of January, 1800, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army; in February, 1803, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, in the Fifth Dragoon Guards; and on the 25th of July, 1810, he was advanced to the brevet rank of colonel. He commanded the six troops of the Fifth Dragoon Guards on foreign service in 1811, and 1812, and while at the theatre of war he was so conspicuous for a gallant and chivalrous spirit, with cheerful alacrity in moments of peril and privation, united with a kind and benevolent disposition, that he won the affection and esteem of those individuals who had the happiness of becoming acquainted with him, and he was the favourite of the troopers of his regiment. At the battle of Salamanca he led the Fifth Dragoon Guards to the charge with his characteristic zeal and gallantry; after the fall of Major-General Le Marchant he was appointed to the command of the heavy brigade, which he held until the end of the war; and no officer better qualified for that important trust, or one who possessed the confidence of the officers and men in a greater degree, could have been found in the army. He was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 4th of June, 1813; and was afterwards chosen a knight commander of the honourable military order of the Bath. On the recommencement of hostilities in 1815, this distinguished officer was placed on the staff of the army in Belgium, and appointed to the command of the second cavalry brigade, consisting of the Royal, Scots Greys, and Inniskilling dragoons, which corps he led to the charge of the French infantry at the battle of Waterloo with that intrepidity for which he had always been so eminently distinguished. Having cut through the first column, he continued his career against fresh adversaries; while passing through a newly-ploughed field, which was so soft and miry from recent heavy rain that his charger sunk deeply in the soil at every step and became exhausted, he was attacked by a regiment of Polish lancers; being in front of his brigade, no one was near him except one aide-de-camp, and at the moment when his horse was unable to extricate itself, a body of lancers approached him at full speed. His own death he knew was inevitable; but supposing his aide-de-camp might escape, he drew from his bosom the picture of his lady, and was in the act of delivering it and his watch to his attendant, to be conveyed to his wife and family, when the lancers came up, and they were both speared on the spot. Thus fell the brave, the ingenuous Ponsonby, whose death occasioned deep sorrow in the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and the troopers expressed regret that they were not at Waterloo to revenge the death of their former commander, who had led them to battle and to victory. His death is thus alluded to by the Duke of Wellington in his public despatch. "I have received a report that Major-General Sir William Ponsonby is killed; and in announcing this intelligence I have to add the expression of my grief for the fate of an officer who had already rendered very brilliant and important services, and was an ornament to his profession."