Redcoats Against Napoleon: The 30th Regiment during the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars - Carole Divall - 30/03/09
The backbone of almost every military operation in British history, the old infantry regiments are fast becoming a thing of the past...but their proud history should not be allowed to die.
So full marks to English teacher Carole Divall who is helping one of the most notable of these outfits – later amalgamated into our own Queen's Lancashire Regiment – to leave a mark for posterity.
At the heart of her fascinating story is Alexander Hamilton who joined the 3oth Regiment of the Line as a 16-year-old ensign in 1787 and retired 40 years later as its lieutenant colonel.
His long and distinguished career witnessed one of the most cataclysmic periods of European history – taking in the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
But this is also the story of the ordinary soldiers, the gallant men who, their officers noted, were not a force of 'brutal fierceness' but dedicated fighters with 'a truly noble feeling for the honour of their country and corps.'
This hitherto ignored group of fighting men dates back to 1689 when Sir George Saunderson of Saxby in Lincolnshire received a commission from William III to raise a foot regiment.
In June of that year, the regiment mustered in York. The men were armed and clothed in grey coats, waistcoats and breeches, all with purple facings, and topped off with broad-brimmed hats. The famous red coats came later ...
For the next hundred years, the soldiers of the new regiment were intermittently on active service in Europe and beyond.
Disbanded twice, the Jacobite resurgence of 1715 saw an urgent need for more troops and the regiment was re-formed as the 30th in the line and soon acquired its more famous title, 'The Old Three Tens.'
It continued as the 30th until 1881 when it was reborn as the East Lancashire Regiment.
Perhaps one of its proudest moments was its role in Wellington's victory at Waterloo in 1815 when the veteran 2nd title Battalion, made up of mainly officers and men with an average age of 29 (compared to the 14th Foot's 300 men under the age of 20!), helped bring about one of the sweetest victories in English history.
But Divall's comprehensive and immaculately researched book takes us far beyond Waterloo and into the blood, guts and drama of other key battles and events in the regiment's long history.
She brings us a welcome new perspective on the Peninsular Wars including Massena's retreat from the Lines of Torres Vedras, the bloody storming of Badajoz and the retreat from Burgos.
Based on some previously unpublished and vivid memoirs left by the men themselves and those they fought alongside, this is a revealing and humbling insight into the lives of British soldiers over 200 years of action-packed history.
Don't miss it!
(Pen&Sword, hardback, 19.99)
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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