Biography of Major-General John Le Marchant 1766-1812

On 09 Feb 1766 Major-General John Le Marchant was born.

On 29 Oct 1789 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 23) and Mary Carey were married.

Around 1795 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 28) designed, in collaboration with the Birmingham sword cutler Henry Osborn, a new cavalry sabre, which was adopted for the light cavalry.

On 03 Jul 1795 [his son] Denis Le Marchant 1st Baronet was born to Major-General John Le Marchant (age 29) at Newcastle upon Tyne [Map].

Around 1796 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 29) wrote "The Rules and Regulations of the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry" which was adopted by the army as part of its official regulations.

In 1797 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 30) was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel at the direct behest of the King with whom Le Marchant had developed a friendly relationship.

In 1801 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 34) was granted £30,000 by Parliament for establishing the High Wycombe and Great Marlow schools for the military instruction of officers. The two original departments being afterwards combined and removed to a purpose-built Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In 1804 Le Marchant received the personal thanks of King George III, who said "The country is greatly indebted to you".

In 1811 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 44) was promoted to Major-General was given the command of a brigade of heavy cavalry in 1811, and greatly distinguished himself in several actions.

In 1811 [his wife] Mary Carey died in childbirth.

On 11 Apr 1812 Major-General John Le Marchant (age 46) led the 5th Dragoon Guards in a perfectly timed flank charge, in echelon of squadrons, which defeated two strong columns of French cavalry under General Charles Lallemand. The French had been attacking British light cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton (age 38), who were being forced to give ground.

                    On 22 Jul 1812 the Battle of Salamanca was fought at which an Anglo-Portuguese army under the Earl of Wellington (age 43) defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles.
                
                    Brother General Thomas Bradford (age 34) and Lieutentant-Colonel Henry Hollis Bradford (age 31) fought.
                
                    Major-General John Le Marchant (age 46) was killed in action. Wellington is reported as saying to Le Marchant that he must take the first favourable opportunity to engage the enemy's infantry, "You must then charge at all hazards" was his final instruction. Following up the attack of the 5th Infantry Division Le Marchant led the 3rd and 4th Dragoons and the 5th Dragoon Guards in what was probably the most destructive charge made by a single brigade of cavalry in the whole Napoleonic period. The left wing of the French army were on the point of being defeated by the 3rd and 5th divisions of Anglo-Portuguese infantry when Le Marchant's dragoons charged in and destroyed battalion after battalion. Many of the French infantrymen sought the protection of the British infantry to escape the sabres of the dragoons. Le Marchant, knowing he had achieved a magnificent success, was leading a squadron against the last of the formed French infantry when he was shot and his spine broken. See Fletcher's "Galloping at Everything: The British Cavalry in the Peninsula and at Waterloo 1808-15". Spellmount, Staplehurst. ISBN 1-86227-016-3. 1999, pp. 185–188.