Imperial Guar d at Waterloo 18 June 1815 Sir John Colborne

Sir John Colborne Later Field Marshal, 1st Baron Seaton, GCB, GCMG, GCH (1778-1863)

Colonel Sir John Colborne, 1821, by Jan Willem Pieneman (1779-1853). © Apsley House, The Wellington CollecƟ on.

Colborne was born at Lyndhurst in Hampshire and was a pupil at Winchester College from 1789-94. On leaving school at the age of 16, he joined the Army, transferring to the 52nd Light Infantry in 1811. He commanded the Regiment in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo.

On 18th June 1815, when the last column of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard advanced on the right fl ank of Wellington’s army at around 7:30 p.m., Colbome, on his own initiative, wheeled his battalion into a position to attack the Imperial Guard in their left fl ank. The effect was immediate. The French were routed, with Colbome, urged on by Wellington, leading his battalion in pursuit Victory at Waterloo soon followed. Colbome was knighted in January 1815 and created Baron Seaton in 1839. He was promoted fi eld marshal in 1860. He died at Torquay in Devon in 1863.

BICENTENARY OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO GARLANDING OF SIR JOHN COLBORNE

The garlanding of the statue of John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, outside The Royal Green Jackets (Rifl es) Museum, Peninsula Barracks, Winchester, at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, 3rd June 2015, in the presence of the Headmaster and members of Winchester College Combined Cadet Force, recognises the pivotal part played by Colbome and the 52nd Light Infantry in the rout of the French Imperial Guard at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815. In conducting this ceremony, we honour an exemplary soldier; a man who was an inspiration and example to those with whom he served; a man in whom his subordinates had the greatest confi dence and who was much loved and respected by them; and a man in whom those at Winchester College and The Rifl es today may very properly take great pride.

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2015 marks a year of some signifi cant anniversaries; the signing of Magna Carta, Agincourt, Waterloo, the end of WWII, Gallipoli and in early May Penny and I attended two historic commemoration ceremonies of The Rifl es’ Allied Regiments. The fi rst in London for the Gurkhas 200th Anniversary of Service to the Crown and the second in Ypres for the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry’s 100th anniversary of their fi rst great battle honour at nearby Frezenberg.

For the Gurkha commemoration, to which a large contingent with the band had marched down the Mall, we assembled in the special enclosure beside the Gurkha memorial in front of the MoD main entrance in Whitehall Place. There followed a moving service and wreath laying ceremony before attending a talk and reception at the Royal United Services Institute. There was much fellow feeling as it was only days after the massive earthquake, which had devastated Nepal. On both occasions we caught up with a number of old friends including Field Marshal Sir John Chapple, from whom I had taken over command of the Gurkha Field Force in Hong Kong thirty-seven years ago. Also there were Lt General Sir Peter Duffel, Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis and Brigadier Bruce Jackman, all of whom, at the time, had commanded their Gurkha battalions in the Field Force, which also included the 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets. Having fi fty-seven years ago been the fi rst post war, and the second ever, Rifl e Brigade exchange offi cer with the PPCLI, I was invited to attend several commemorative events, the fi rst of which was a reception at the Canadian High Commission. The Guest of honour was ninety one year old Patricia Countess Mountbatten, who had taken over from Princess Patricia as Colonel in Chief and, despite her IRA bomb injuries, was in great form and her active presence was very much appreciated.

Penny and I then drove to Ypres via Calais to stay in the charming Ariane Hotel, which we had frequented on a previous trip. Also staying in the Hotel were Major Ron and Shirley Cassidy. Ron had been my company sergeant major in Borneo fi fty years ago. He was there in his role as Chairman of The Rifl e Brigade Association, of which I am President. On the car ferry we had also met another family group of three couples staying in our hotel for the Patricia commemorations. We introduced ourselves to one another as we got out of the cars as one of them was wearing the VP regimental cypher on his blazer. When names were exchanged it emerged that two of the three brothers, the de Courcy-Ireland’s, had overlapped at Radley with me rising seventy years ago. More remarkably they were the great nephews of Brigadier Andrew Hamilton-Gault, the revered founder of the Patricia’s, who I had the privilege of meeting on arrival in Montreal and subsequently had been an honorary pall bearer in his funeral procession. At the Patricia ‘meet and greet’ on the fi rst evening I had a delightful reunion with Ida Schjelderup, whose late

husband Roger had been my outstanding and highly decorated commanding offi cer in 2 PPCLI in Edmonton. There were a number of Patricia’s there who had been young subalterns when I had served with the 1st and 2nd Battalions including General John de Chastelain who uniquely was twice Chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, Ambassador to the USA and then on retirement became Chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning in Northern Ireland. round the town, followed by the traditional Last Post Ceremony at the packed Menin Gate. The whole Patricia series of centennial events that we attended in Ypres and Frezenberg had been marvellously well organised and we felt very proud of our Allied Regiment.

The ceremonies included a very moving service and wreath laying at the Patricia’s memorial at Frezenberg, sited in open agricultural land, attended by a large number of people in temporary stands; two companies and the Commanding Offi cer of 2 PPCLI, the Edmonton Police Band, the Commander of the Canadian Army, the Colonel-in-Chief, the Regimental Colonel and various senior Canadian and Belgian offi cers and the Canadian Ambassador. I was privileged to be one of the speechmakers, laid a Rifl es’ wreath and was accorded a ‘general salute’ on formal arrival and departure in a smart Mercedes hire car, ably driven by Sergeant Cameron PPCLI. I was escorted by Lt Colonel Dick Ovey, a serving and uniformed Rifl es offi cer, who has also been an exchange offi cer with the Patricia’s. The event was all the more moving as my father, then a regular subaltern in the King’s Dragoon Guards, had been seriously wounded only a few days after the Patricia’s battle just a few hundred yards along the ridge at Hooge where some of the trenches still remain. We then went on to have lunch, and in due course dinner, with the Colonel-in-Chief, The Rt Hon Madame Adrienne Clarkson, until recently the Governor-General of Canada. A most remarkable person and the fi rst female, fi rst oriental and fi rst refugee Governor-General having escaped from the Japanese with her Chinese parents from Hong Kong as a small child in 1942. It was pleasing to share with her the links with the Patricias, Hong Kong and that my four greats grand father, General Sir Guy Carleton, had been the fi rst GovernorGeneral of Canada 1786-1796. The evening included the Patricia contingent exercising their rights of the Freedom of Ypres to march

We returned to the Menin Gate with the Cassidys the next day to lay a wreath below the panels with the 1394 Rifl e Brigade names with no known graves in the Ypres salient.

Penny and I also re-visited cemeteries including the vast Tyne Cot and Voormezele to lay a wreath at the gravestone of Lt Colonel Hugh Buller, The Rifl e Brigade

and fi rst adjutant and second commanding offi cer of the PPCLI. He had been ADC to Princess Patricia’s father, The Duke of Connaught, Governor General and Colonel Commandant of The Rifl e Brigade, when Hamilton-Gault raised the Regiment in August 1914. On returning via Calais Penny and I laid a wreath at the imposing Green Jacket memorial at the pier head at which we normally attend an annual service in late May. Three Green Jacket battalions had been sent there to protect the southern fl ank of the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in 1940.

There was to be no evacuation for them. In September 1944 it was a young bloodied and dishevelled Captain Roger Schjelderup, then in the Canadian Scottish, who took the surrender of one of the forts in Calais from a very reluctant German commander.

Thus passed a memorable ten days in May 2015 encompassing historic, regimental, family and personal anniversaries, commemorations, reunions, reminiscences and coincidences. Of such is the fabric of life made good.

Major General Sir Michael Carleton-Smith, CBE DL

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