Gunner William Edington R.H.A. (a relative)

 Many years ago me and my sister started doing our family history and this being pre-internet it involved traveling to various Records Offices and scrolling through endless micro-films etc . Most of our relatives where rather ordanary folk and mainly farm labourers in the North of England .

However we came across this one chap who was my mothers Grt Grt  Grand father who lived in Berwickshire at Greenlaw and appeared on various census as a retired Army Pensioner ! . We where intrigued and dug deeper and were luck enough to to be able to track him down and his military career . (sadly no photo of the actual chap - but this illustrates his uniform in 1815)

This is a copy of the census reports my sister typed up showing him and his family .

We were also luck enough to be able to find his service record - not a good picture but it was scanned on a rather dodgy photo copier . He joined the RHA in June 1805 aged 23 and served for 13 years BUT got 15 years pension ! - very odd ! , then we discovered that soldiers who served in the Waterloo Campaign were given an extra 2 years of pension as a thank you . He is described as 5'9" tall , Blue eyes, and brown hair.. His conduct had been good and was discharged due to a reduction in the Army . He returned home and became a groom at the local Mansion at Greenlaw 

He is recorded on the Waterloo Medal Roll serving in Lt. Col. Gardiners Troop 

Waterloo was the first time every soldier recieved a medal and with it the extra years pension .

He was also probably in the Penninsular War in Spain and Portugal as Gardiners Troop served there as well .

We were also luck enough to find a excert from the Diary of Lt Willia Bates Ingoldsby who served in 'E' troop Gardiners Battery during the Waterloo Campaign (click on photo to enlarge)

As battles go 'E' Troop had a quite uneventful day, attached to Vivian's Cavalry Brigade they didn't see much action till the French retired and then they supported the Cavalry in pursuit of the fleeing enemy . Earlier in the battle they did send a gun forward to shell the enemy but the horse teams became bogged down and their lighter guns couldn't effectively reach the French and one of the limbers blew up when hit by a French cannon ball - so they retired rather ignominiously to their original position with the loss of a Sergeant killed. The above map is from the diary and records the later manouvers of 'E' Troop. Sorry for the rather dodgy photos as the originals date before the digital era but if you click on them they do enlarge . It's nice to have a relitive of note after enless labourers and farm hands 

Buffalo Bill Cody.

 

I have finally got the 54mm Buffalo Bill figure done and rather splendid he is , whoever sculpted him did a good job of catching a likeness of the great man , here we see him posing on a rock outcrop overlooking the Great Patio .

Another photo has been drawn to my attention I believe it's from the period of 'The Great Patio War' as several of the people in it appear in other pictures of this era . The are I believe- a) H G Wells, b) a lady who is definately not Mrs Wells, c) Lincoln Logge, d) Buffalo Bill Cody, e) Kipling . Im assuming the photographer to be Mathew Brady Jr but there is no markings on it to identify the date,place or photographer .I must thank the University of Felpersham (Borsetshire) for the photo.

Toy soldiers in art No.17

 

Found on the 'Military toys of our childhood ' Facebook page .The figures are I presume 54mm plastic,  the photo is from Vintage Ideal Toys Co. and is from their "Battle Action" line from December 1965 . I think the company must be an American one as I've never heard of it before. 

Lincoln Logge and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show .

 

I've been doing a bit more digging into the career of (Col.) Lincoln Logge and came across the above poster from the collection of the University of Felpersham (Borsetshire). Interestingly Logge is titled as Major Logge !? - evidently Buffalo Bill didn't like the idea of two Colonels in his show ( Although both mens military rank are rather questionable) .

Here we see Logge and Buffalo Bill posing for a premotional photograph ,The photographer is Mathew Brady Junior who did a lot of work for Buffalo Bill Cody - and failed to get paid for a lot of it ! . Logge only did one season with the Wild West Show as he fell out with Cody , Lincoln Logge was a teetotaler and unfortunatly Buffalo Bill like a drink or two (or three-four...) so they parted company somewhat acrimoniously ! 

What's going on ! ?

 

I started these 40mm Prince August French SYW-ish figures about six month ago .: Starting painting my 40mm SYW-ish . (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) and they got put into a cupboard and somewhat forgotten . Having a clear out looking for something else I came across them and decided I must get them finished . They are the Volonttaires Estranger a unit of French Light Infantry. 

In the same tray I found this 54mm Blacksmith figure and anvil - for the life in me I can't remember where he came from !? - eBay ? , think he might be a hollowcast Britains as the anvil has Britains stamped on it , hmm do I repaint him ? - will have to think about that.

Border Clash , the finale .

 

The Treborians start to counterattack moving their Dragoons up towards the damaged enemy infantry.

Whilst this was happening the other Rochaian infantry where wandering about the hills, I think the plan was a flank attack but a combination of poor movement dice and card draws - it didn't happen !

Finally thet realise they better change the plan and go and help their comrades down the valley.

The Alicia Dragoons charge the remnants of the Rochain infantry .

The combat was very one side and they polished of the enemy in short time !. To make things worse the ajoining Reserve infantry recieved a devistating volley and even though Major Velkro tried to rally them they retreated to the flank of their comrades.

The Treborian artillery changes it's target and opens fire on the enemy on the conical hill. Mark Twain recorded in his memoirs "I was invited by the by the Battery Commander to fire the gun ! - it was very exhilarating and I saw my shot explode into the enemy ranks !"

Then it was time to draw a chance card ! - Mark Twain records "whilst serving with the battery we smelt smoke ! and on looking round we where alarmed to see smoke pouring from the house I had hired !"- in his hurry to see all the excitement he had left his breakfast cooking - which set fire to the kitchen ! - in the insurance claim it was claimed "fire caused by enemy action" 

I then promptly drew ANOTHER chance card due to another Joker being drawn !

This however didn't stop the artillery zeroing in on the wandering Rochain infantry , things were not looking good for the Ferraro Rochain force as casualties mounted.

The game draws to a close , The Soldatii de Futuna continue to fail their morale tests and fall back towards the shelter of the woods , leaving only one unit standing in the way of the Treborian forces. Over on the left flank now the conical hill had been vacated by the enemy the British Legione start to accend it it's slopes again to recapture it.

With over half of their force casualties the Ferraro Rochain General signals a retreat . Another great game - the Ferraro Rochain were a bit unlucky when they couldn't build on their initial success and a series of good card draws gave the Treborians the upper hand and their artillery caused heavy casualties on the enemy infantry . And so we leave the scene of the conflict as the smoke from Mark Twains holiday villa drifts lazily across the stricken field .....

The Treborian British Legione - an aside .

 The origins of the British Legione (Britanska legija) , an aside after their recent tabletop behaviour 

Thursday, 21 April 2011

The British Legione

British Legione inspected by Archduke Albert

The Treborian High Command has decided to raise a Auxiliary force to help fight Ferraro Rocca . They have recruited a Legion of British ex servicemen . Unfortunately the quality of some of the recruits lack some of the more soldiery qualities , the Quartermasters department got a good deal on some ex British uniforms - sadly these are somewhat out of date (about 50 years) (no wonder they were cheap !). It remains to see how these brave chaps will fare against the enemy . The Archduke Albert was overheard to comment 'I hope they frighten the enemy - because they certainly  perturb me !' .

And now back to the battle ...........

Border Clash (part one)

The British Legione struggle uphill to crown the heights , the token denotes they have become disordered .

As the Rocherian infantry advance quickly but come under devistating artillery from the Treborian 'Quick Fire Artillery' , due to some lucky card drawing the Rocherian column suffered three turns of artillery fire and being in a march column didn't save any of the hits , but suprisingly past their morale test.

An overview of the action , the British Legion and the Soldatii de Futuna confront each other on the conical hill on the left and the advanced unit of the Rocharians are under artillery fire in the centre.

The Soldatii de Futuna race up the hill and fire into the British Legione who are catching their breath and deploying into line .

Startled by the fury of the attack the British Legione fail their morale test and fall back - they roll a double 6 and retire 12" !!! - Oh dear ! , a further instalment to come soon ........