THE ILLUSTRATION SHOWS the undress jacket of a Life Guard, as was worn on active service by officers and other ranks in place of the heavily laced dress jacket worn on ceremonial occasions.
The Household Cavalry was usually stationed in England to protect the king’s person and rarely served abroad. However, it was sent to serve in Spain with the Duke of Wellington in 1812 and fought at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.
At Waterloo the Household Cavalry Brigade, commanded by Major General Lord Edward Somerset, consisted of two squadrons of the Royal Horse Guards (of which Wellington was colonel), along with two squadrons each of the two regiments of the Life Guards and four squadrons of the King’s Dragoon Guards, amounting to 1,350 cavalrymen in total. The brigade stood to the right of the main Brussels road, just in front of the farm of Mont St Jean, in reserve behind the infantry. Here they remained, only suffering from the occasional cannonball coming over the ridge.
At around 1.30 p.m. the Comte d’Erlon’s corps marched against the allied left wing. This was supported by a brigade of cuirassiers who rode up the slope to the west of La Haye Sainte. The cuirassiers rode over a Hanoverian battalion which had been intended to reinforce the defence of the farm, scattering it, and then continued towards the ridge. As the cuirassiers neared the crossroads, they threatened the 95th Rifles, who fled for safety, some not returning to the fight that day.
Date of manufacture:
c. 1815
Location:
National Army Museum, London, UK
Captain Wililam Tyrwhitt Drake’s helmet, Royal Horse Guards.
Lord Uxbridge now launched the Household Cavalry Brigade in a swift counter-attack, catching the cuirassiers in their flank and driving them back down the slope. Here they also drove into the French infantry that was trying to capture La Haye Sainte, forcing them back, and it is reported that Lieutenant Tathwell Baker Tathwell captured the Eagle of the 55th Régiment de Ligne (see item 26), but he was soon captured and the Eagle retrieved. The lieutenant effected his escape only two days later.
The Household Cavalry were then driven back by a counter-attack from a large French cavalry force, including lancers, who had a great advantage during such confused close combat. The Life Guards bore the brunt of this, while the Royal Horse Guards were used as a reserve and covered the Household Cavalry’s retreat to the ridge.
Returning to their original position, the Household Cavalry were involved in numerous counter-moves during the mass French cavalry attacks against the allied right wing between 3 and 6 p.m. Sadly depleted by losses during these charges and the constant cannon fire, they eventually formed only a thin line, which was placed hard up behind the infantry line to encourage them to continue to stand.
Around this time Major General Sir Hussey Vivian, commander of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, arrived from the left wing and asked Lord Edward Somerset where his brigade was. Somerset apparently simply pointed to the piles of dead men and horses littering the field around him.
The Household Cavalry was now an exhausted and spent force and could not assist in any meaningful way in the final advance after the defeat of the Imperial Guard.
