Note 35 — REGIMENTAL LISTS.

An amusing anecdote relative to this officer is given in the United Service Journal for 1838. Col. A. Hamilton of this regt., had a very valuable charger at Waterloo, and knowing that if it was shot in the battle he would only get the Government price of £20 for another charger, he exchanged horses, before going into action at Quatre Bras, with his steady old quartermaster, who, being a non-combatant, was to remain in the rear. The quartermaster’s horse was what is called a “safe convenience,” but the colonel’s charger was very high-spirited and fresh. Unaccustomed to the quietude of his position in the rear of the army, he fretted and fumed at being kept back from the excitement going on in front. His rider had a bad time of it, and was a source of much amusement to the idlers and 144“non-effectives” in the rearward. The narrator of this incident says that on the evening of the 16th June, 1815, Sir W. Ponsonby sent his A.D.C. to offer to buy Hamilton’s fine charger (his owner being wounded), but the bargain hung fire in some way, and the gallant Ponsonby lost his life on the 18th June, as we have seen, from being badly mounted.