PART IV. A FEW WATERLOO HEROES.
Reading edition
1st Life Guards.
Field-Trumpeter J. Edwards.
Sounded the bugle for the decisive charge of the 1st Life Guards at Waterloo. Was 32 years in the regt., and received a pension in June, 1841 His medal and bugle are still preserved in the regiment.
2nd Life Guards.
1 Corp. John Shaw, k.
2 Private Samuel Godley.
3 ” Johnson.
” Dakin.
” Hodgson.
2681st Dragoon Guards.
1 Troop Sergt.-Maj. Thos. Nicholson, W.
2 Sergt. John Hodgkins.
2nd Dragoons.
1 Troop Sergt.-Maj. Wm. Robertson.
2 Sergt. John Weir, K.
3 Private Thos. Stobo.
2696th Dragoons.
Troop Sergt.-Maj. Wm. Seney.
” ” John Laws.
1 ” ” Matthew Marshall, W.
Sergt. Hugh MʻMahon.
” Johnston Marlow.
Private Wm. Penfold.
” Robert Potters.
2 ” Jeremiah Brown.
7th Hussars.
Sergt.-Maj. Edward Cotton.
Had his horse killed under him at Waterloo. After being discharged from the regt. he took up his abode at Waterloo, and became a guide to the battlefield. Being a clever and well-educated man, he was able to compile a very interesting little book called A Voice from Waterloo, which held its own among the many accounts of the great battle. Besides this he formed a Waterloo Museum, which has always been a great attraction to visitors. In 1875, when the Editor was at Waterloo, the Museum was kept by a niece of the late sergt.-maj., who d. 1st July, 1849, and was bd. in the orchard of Hougomont, by the side of Capt. Blackwood, who fell in the battle.
27016th Light Dragoons.
Sergt.-Maj. Baxter, K.
A Pa. hero, mentioned in the records of this regt.
18th Hussars.
Sergt. John Taylor.
Belonged to Capt. Ellis’s troop. In the charge at Waterloo he made a cut at the head of one of the French cuirassiers, which had no other effect on the Frenchman than to induce him to cry out, in derision, “Ha! ha!” and to return a severe blow at the sergt., which was admirably parried, and then Taylor thrust his sabre into the mouth of the cuirassier, who immediately fell, and the conqueror cried, “Ha! ha!”
Coldstream Guards.
Sergt. John Graham, Light Company, 2nd Batt.
Distinguished himself in the defence of Hougomont, and by his great personal strength was of great assistance in helping to close the courtyard gate against the French. “At a later period of the day, when in the ranks along the garden wall facing the wood, and when the struggle was most severe in that quarter, he asked Lt.-Col. Macdonell’s permission to fall out. The colonel, knowing the character of the man, expressed his surprise at the request made at such a moment. Graham explained that his brother lay wounded in one of the buildings then on fire; that he wished to remove him to a place of safety, and that he would then lose no time in rejoining the ranks. The request was granted; Graham succeeded in snatching his brother from the terrible fate which menaced him, laid him in a ditch in rear of the enclosure, and true to his word, was again at his post.”—Col. Mackinnon’s History of the Coldstreams. Was selected in August, 1815, for the pension granted by the Rev. — Norcross, Rector of Framlingham, “to the most deserving soldier at Waterloo.” D., at Kilmainham, 23rd April, 1843. He was a native of Cloona, co. Monaghan.
3rd Foot Guards.
1 Sergt.-Maj. Ralph Fraser.
2 ” Brice MʻGregor.
23rd Regiment of Foot.
Col.-Sergt. Jonathan Thomas.
D., at the Union Workhouse, Swansea, in Dec., 1867, aged 85.
27th Regiment of Foot.
Private Thos. Kerrigan.
One of the few of this regt. who escaped being blown to pieces when standing in square on the Charleroi road, 18th June, 1815. D., at Calky, near Enniskillen, 3rd Dec., 1862. Is said to have attained the great age of 108.
33rd Regiment of Foot.
Private John Riches.
Was at the storming of Seringapatam, and is said to have been present at both Quatre Bras and Ligny on 16th June, 1815. Aftds. a Chelsea Hospital pensioner. D., at Attleburgh, in June, 1860.
40th Regiment of Foot.
Sergt. Wm. Lawrence.
Born at Bryant’s Piddle, co. Dorset, 1791. Enlisted in the 40th Foot at age of fifteen. Served with the 1st Batt. in the expedition to Monte Video, and throughout the Par. War. Wounded at Badajoz, where he was one of the forlorn hope, and kept six weeks in hospital at Estremos. Soon after 272made corporal. Earned Lord Wellington’s praise for the gallant manner in which he captured three French cannon, and drove off a score of French artillerymen with only six men of his own regt. Promoted sergt. Narrowly escaped being killed at Waterloo by a French shell, which exploded near Lawrence, “hurling him two yards into the air.” About 4 o’clock P.M. on Waterloo day was ordered to the colours, in defending which an officer and fourteen sergts. had already lost their lives that terrible day. M., when at St. Germains, a Frenchwoman named Marie Louise Claire, who, under Napoleon’s régime, had, in common with all other “Marie Louises,” been obliged to change their Christian names, so that the Empress might be the only one of that name in France! Pensioned on 9d. a day in 1819. D., at Studland, co. Dorset, 1867.
42nd Regiment of Foot.
Private Donald Davidson, W.
The following notice appeared in the Standard, in April or May, 1867:—“There died at the village of Ardisier, Inverness-shire, a few days ago, an old veteran named Donald Davidson, one of the fast diminishing band of Waterloo heroes. Donald, who, it may be mentioned, had six toes on each foot, was born in the parish of Nairn, Nairnshire, in the year 1792, and enlisted in the 42nd Highlanders in June, 1813. He served with his regt. in the Pa., France, and the Netherlands, from February, 1814, to December, 1816. He was wounded at the battle of Toulouse, and slightly on the head at Quatre Bras. Notwithstanding, he stuck to his regt., and was one of the gallant few who repulsed the grand charge of cavalry in the cornfield at Waterloo. He was discharged with 1s. per day of pension, and served for a long time as barrack labourer in Fort George. He d. at the advanced age of 75 years.”
52nd Regiment of Foot.
Private Patrick Lowe.
Served through the whole of the Par. War, and formed one of the forlorn hope at Badajoz, where he personally captured the governor of the fortress, by which he obtained a large reward. In 1848 he recd. the silver war medal with 13 clasps; but it is said he would never wear this medal, because he had claimed his right to 14 clasps and considered himself injured by receiving one clasp less. He d., at Enniskillen, in 1852, aged 84.
27369th Regiment of Foot.
Private John Slater.
Born at Ilkeston, co. Derby. Enlisted in the 52nd in 1803. Served through the whole of the Par. War with that regt. Aftds. exchanged into 69th. In 1848 Slater claimed his right to the silver war medal with 14 clasps—one clasp more than Wellington obtained—but only got a medal with 12 clasps. He d. at Nottingham in 1860.
92nd Regiment of Foot.
Sergt. Alexander Cameron, Piper Major.
Served in the Pa. during the whole of the late war, and for his zeal attracted the attention of several officers of high rank. Lt.-Gen. Sir Wm Erskine, in a letter to a friend, after the affair at Rio del Molinos, says:—“The first intimation the enemy had of our approach was the piper of the 92nd playing ‘Hey, Johnnie Coup, are ye waukin’ yet?’” To this favourite air from Cameron’s pipe the streets of Brussels re-echoed on the night of the 15th June, 1815, when the regt. assembled to march out to the field of Waterloo. It is recorded of this gallant Scot, on the 18th June, 1815, that “not content with piping at the head of his regt. he marched forward with a party of skirmishers, and placing himself on a height, in full view of the enemy, continued to animate by playing favourite national airs.” D. at Belfast 18th Oct., 1817.—Scots’ Magazine.
Royal Horse Artillery.
Sergt. Daniel Dunnett.
Belonged to Capt. Whinyates’s Rocket Battery. The Waterloo historian (Siborne) gives the following:—“A party of horse artillery proceeded under Capt. Dansey along the Charleroi road, to the front of the centre of the Anglo-allied line, and came into action with rockets near the farm of La Haye Sainte, leaving its two guns in the rear under Lt. Wright. Capt. Dansey very soon received a severe wound which obliged him to retire; and the party, after firing a few rockets, fell back a little to where its horses were standing. It was then commanded by a sergeant (Daniel Dunnett), who, on perceiving the advance of the nearest French column towards the farm, dismounted his men as coolly and deliberately as if exercising on Woolwich Common, though without any support whatever, laid rockets on the ground, and discharged them in succession into the mass, every one of them appearing to take effect. The advance of the column was checked, and was not resumed until Dunnett, having expended all his rockets, retired with his party to rejoin the guns in rear.”
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