Historical record of the Seventeenth Regiment of Light Dragoons;—Lancers / Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1759 and of its subsequent services to 1841.

by Richard Cannon

SUCCESSION OF COLONELS

OF

THE SEVENTEENTH

REGIMENT OF LIGHT DRAGOONS;—

LANCERS.

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John Hale,

Appointed 27th April, 1763.

John Hale held a commission in the Forty-seventh Foot, and served in Scotland during the rebellion of 1745-6. He was promoted to Captain in 1752, and to the Majority of the regiment in 1755. On the breaking out of the seven years' war he proceeded with the Forty-seventh to North America, and was promoted to the Lieut.-Colonelcy of the regiment on the 19th of March, 1758. He commanded the Forty-seventh regiment in the expedition against Cape Breton, under Lieut.-General, afterwards Lord, Amherst; was distinguished for intrepidity at the landing on the 8th of June, 1758, and also served with credit at the siege of Louisburg, which surrendered on the 26th of July. On the 30th of August he embarked with his regiment from Louisburg, and proceeded to the support of Major-General Abercromby, who had been repulsed in an attack on the French fort of Ticonderago, on the west shore of Lake Champlain. In 1759 he commanded the Forty-seventh in the expedition against Quebec, under Major-General James Wolfe, and when appointed to this arduous enterprise, he was honoured with the local rank of Colonel in America. Sailing up the river St. Lawrence a landing was effected, and several actions took place, in which Colonel Hale was distinguished for the cool and steady manner in which he led the Forty-seventh into the fight. At the battle of Quebec, on the 13th of September, 1759, Major-General Wolfe fell, mortally wounded, while in the act of leading the Twenty-eighth Foot to the charge with bayonets; Colonel Hale brought the Forty-seventh into action in a very gallant manner, and the charge of the two regiments (Twenty-eighth and Forty-seventh) was irresistible. After the surrender of Quebec, Colonel Hale was selected to proceed to England with despatches, and he arrived in London on the evening of the 16th of October. He was well received at Court, and being a talented officer, well acquainted with the nature of the service of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, his merits procured him the favour of his Sovereign.

A few months previous to Colonel Hale's arrival in England, King George II. had resolved to add to his land forces entire regiments of light cavalry; soon after the victory at Quebec was made known, His Majesty reviewed the first of these regiments, "Eliott's Light Horse," in Hyde Park, and was so much pleased with its appearance and activity, that Colonel Hale was appointed to superintend the formation of an additional light regiment, now the Seventeenth Lancers, of which he was appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant on the 7th of November, 1759, and Colonel on the 27th of April, 1763. In 1770 he was appointed Governor of Limerick, when he was succeeded in the colonelcy of his regiment by Colonel Preston. He was promoted to the rank of Major-General in 1772, to that of Lieut.-General in 1777; and to that of General on the 12th of October, 1793. He died on the 20th of March, 1806, at the Plantations, near Guisborough, Yorkshire, leaving behind him seventeen children.

George Preston,

Appointed 2nd November, 1770.

George Preston was many years an officer in the Scots' Greys, and served with his regiment in 1743 at the battle of Dettingen, where the Greys captured the white standard of the French household troops. The Greys also served at the battle of Fontenoy in 1745, at Roucoux in 1746, and in 1747 highly distinguished themselves at Val, where Captain George Preston was wounded. His meritorious conduct was rewarded, in 1757, with the Lieut.-Colonelcy of the Greys, at the head of which corps he served in Germany under Prince Ferdinand, of Brunswick, from 1758 to 1762. At the battle of Minden in 1759, Warbourg in 1760, Kirch Denkern in 1761, and Grobenstein in 1762, the Greys had the honour of serving, and they signalized themselves in numerous skirmishes, on which occasions Lieut.-Colonel Preston was distinguished for discretion and personal bravery; and he returned to England in 1763, with the reputation of being an excellent cavalry officer. In 1770 he was rewarded with the Colonelcy of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons; in 1772 he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and to that of Lieut.-General in 1777: in 1782 he was appointed to the Colonelcy of the Scots' Greys. He died at Bath in 1785.

The Honourable Thomas Gage,

Appointed 18th April, 1782.

The Honourable Thomas Gage, second son of Thomas, first Viscount Gage, of Castle Island, in Ireland, having served some time in the subordinate commissions, was appointed Major of the Forty-fourth Foot in February, 1747, and he was further promoted to the Lieut.-Colonelcy of the regiment on the 2nd of March, 1751. He was serving with his regiment in America, when a dispute occurred between Great Britain and France respecting the territory on the banks of the Ohio, and he commanded the advance-guard of the forces sent against Fort Du Quesne, which the French had built to command the entrance into the country on the Ohio and Mississippi. In the disastrous action on the 9th of July, 1755, Major-General Braddock was killed and Lieut.-Colonel Honourable Thomas Gage was wounded. He continued to serve in America, where he raised a provincial regiment, which was numbered the Eightieth, Light-armed, Foot, of which he was appointed Colonel in May, 1758: he was also appointed Brigadier-General in North America, and the efforts of the army effected the conquest of Canada, which has continued to form part of the British dominions from that period. He was promoted to the rank of Major-General in 1761, and in the same year he performed the duty of Commander-in-Chief in North America, and also succeeded Sir Jeffrey Amherst as Colonel-in-Chief of the Sixteenth regiment, which he held two months, when Lieut.-General Amherst was re-appointed. In March, 1762, he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-second Foot; and in April, 1770, he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General. When the misunderstanding between Great Britain and her North American colonies began to assume a serious aspect, he was appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of Massachusetts Bay, and he arrived at Boston in May, 1774. Hostilities commenced in the following year, and his active exertions to suppress the rebellion were rewarded in August, 1775, with the appointment of Commander-in-Chief in North America, which he resigned in a few months afterwards. In April, 1782, he was appointed Colonel of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons; he was promoted to the rank of General in November following, and in 1785 he was removed to the Eleventh Dragoons. He died in 1787.

Thomas Earl of Lincoln,

Appointed 4th February, 1785.

Lord Thomas Pelham Clinton, second son of Henry, ninth Earl of Lincoln, and first Duke of Newcastle, chusing the profession of arms, was appointed Captain and Lieut.-Colonel in the First Foot Guards on the 5th of April, 1775, and, on the decease of his brother, in 1778, he obtained the title of Earl of Lincoln. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1780, and in 1782 he obtained the Colonelcy of the Seventy-fifth, or the Prince of Wales's Regiment of Foot, which was disbanded at the termination of the American war, in 1783. In 1785 he obtained the Colonelcy of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons; in 1787 he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and he succeeded to the dignity of Duke of Newcastle on the decease of his father, in 1794. He died in 1795.

Oliver de Lancey,

Appointed 20th May, 1795.

Oliver de Lancey descended from a respectable family settled in North America. When a disposition to make themselves independent appeared in the Colonies, he wrote a pamphlet entitled, "Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes on the British Colonies," which was first printed in America, and afterwards went through the press several times in London. Proceeding to Great Britain, he procured the commission of Cornet in the Fourteenth Dragoons, in 1766, and in May, 1773, he was appointed Captain in the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, in which corps he remained forty-nine years. In 1774 he was sent with despatches for the Commander-in-Chief, and was directed to provide accommodation for his regiment, which was then under orders for America; also to provide remount horses for his corps and for the artillery and other departments of the army. On arriving at Boston he was sent to New York, to accomplish the objects of his mission; but, hostilities commencing, he returned to Boston, where his regiment arrived about the same time, and he remained at this place during the blockade and bombardment, until it was evacuated in 1776, when he proceeded to Halifax, and afterwards to Staten Island. He commanded a squadron of the Seventeenth on Long Island, distinguished himself in the driving back of the American piquets, and also at the battle of Brooklyn. Crossing the river to New York he had further opportunities of signalizing himself, and in the spring of 1777 he served in the Jerseys, where the squadron under his orders had several rencounters with detachments of the enemy. In the following winter he proceeded to Philadelphia, was actively employed in the spring of 1778 in various services in Pennsylvania, and was engaged in covering the march of the army from thence to New York. On the 3rd of June, 1778, he was promoted to the Majority of his regiment, which he commanded while it was stationed on Long Island, and afterwards in the lines in front of New York, where skirmishes occurred almost daily. He was subsequently appointed Deputy Quarter-Master-General to the expedition to South Carolina, where he served at the siege of Charlestown, and in several expeditions under Earl Cornwallis; and in 1781 he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and appointed Adjutant-General in America, in succession to Major John André, who was made prisoner by the Americans and executed as a spy. At the termination of the war he was appointed to arrange the military claims made by persons who had served in America; and he was placed at the head of a commission for settling the accounts of the army during the war. In 1790 he was appointed Deputy Adjutant-General, with the rank of Colonel in the army; in 1794 he obtained the Lieut.-Colonelcy of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, and was appointed Barrack-Master-General, which he held ten years; he was also promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 3rd of October, 1794. On the 20th of May, 1795, he was farther rewarded with the Colonelcy of his regiment. He was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General in 1801, and to that of General in 1812. He was many years a Member of Parliament. He died in September, 1822, after serving the crown fifty-six years.

Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset, K.C.B.,

Appointed 9th September, 1822.

Removed to the Royal Dragoons in 1829, and to the Fourth, or Queen's Own, Light Dragoons in 1836.

Sir John Elley, K.C.B., K.C.H.,

Appointed 23rd November, 1829.

This officer was a native of Leeds, and, being intended for the law, was articled to a solicitor in London; but preferring the profession of arms, he enlisted at Leeds, on the 5th of November, 1789, as a private trooper in the Royal Horse Guards (Blues). His conduct was generally approved of by his officers, and his attachment to the army remaining undiminished, his father enabled him to purchase the appointment of Quartermaster of a troop in the following year, namely, on the 4th of June, 1790; he was promoted to a Cornetcy, by purchase, on the 6th of June, 1794. He accompanied the four troops of the Blues to Flanders in 1793, as Acting Adjutant; and serving under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, he was present at several engagements, where the Blues distinguished themselves, particularly at Cateau on the 26th of April, 1794, where Acting Adjutant Elley evinced signal gallantry. He served with his regiment in the retreat through Holland to Germany, and, returning to England in November, 1795, he was promoted to a Lieutenantcy, by purchase, on the 26th of January, 1796. The rank of Captain-Lieutenant was conferred on this meritorious officer on the 24th of October, 1799, and he was promoted to Captain of a troop, by purchase, on the 26th of February, 1801. He was employed as Aide-de-camp to Major-General Staveley on the Staff of Great Britain, when the country was threatened with invasion by Buonaparte. He was promoted, by purchase, to Major of the Royal Horse Guards on the 29th of November, 1804, and to Lieut.-Colonel, by purchase, on the 6th of March, 1808. In 1808 he served as Assistant Adjutant-General to the cavalry of the army, which advanced into Spain under Lieut.-General Sir John Moore, and was at the cavalry action at Sahagun, where the Fifteenth Hussars highly distinguished themselves; also at Benevente, where the French Imperial Guards were driven across the Esla with severe loss. Lieut.-Colonel Elley was also present at several other skirmishes, and at the battle of Corunna. The appointment of Assistant Adjutant-General to the cavalry of the British army in Portugal and Spain was held by Lieut.-Colonel Elley from 1809 to 1814; he proved a most valuable officer, and performed the duties of his situation with great ability during those arduous campaigns, in which the British troops gained many honours. He was present at most of the battles in Portugal, Spain, and France, until the power of Buonaparte was subdued and the Bourbon dynasty was restored to the throne of France. He received several severe wounds, particularly at Salamanca, where he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner; he was promoted to the rank of Colonel on the 7th of March, 1813: in 1815 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to the cavalry of the army in Flanders, under His Grace the Duke of Wellington, and served at the battle of Waterloo[9]. He was rewarded with a silver medal for the battle of Waterloo; a cross and three clasps for the battles of Sahagun, Benevente, Talavera, Fuentes d'Onor, Salamanca, Vittoria, Orthes, and Toulouse. He was also constituted Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath; Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order; Knight of Maria Theresa of Austria; Knight of St. George of Russia (fourth class). He was promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 12th of August, 1819; in 1821 he was appointed Governor of Galway, and in 1829 he was rewarded with the Colonelcy of the Seventeenth Lancers: in 1837 he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General. He died on the 28th of January, 1839, at his residence, near Andover, and was interred at the Chapel Royal, at Windsor.

Sir Joseph Stratton, K.C.H.,

Appointed 28th January, 1839.

Removed to the Eighth, or the King's Royal Irish, Regiment of Light Dragoons, Hussars, on the 24th of August, 1839.

Sir Arthur Benjamin Clifton, K.C.B., K.C.H.,

Appointed 24th August, 1839.

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LONDON: HARRISON AND CO., PRINTERS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.