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Benjamin D'Urban
Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant General Sir Benjamin D'Urban (16 February 1777 – 25 May 1849) was a British General officer, general and colonial Administrator of the Government, administrator, who is best known for his frontier policy when he was the Governor in the British Cape Colony, Cape Colony (now in South Africa). Durban (formerly called Port Natal), the third-largest city in South Africa, was renamed in his honor. Early career D'Urban was born in Halesworth, the youngest but only surviving son of Benjamin D'Urban, and joined the British Army in 1793, enlisting as a Cornet (military rank), cornet in the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), Queen's Bays at the age of sixteen. He made rapid progress in the Army and distinguished himself in the Peninsular War. Assigned to the Portuguese army, he was quartermaster general and chief-of-staff to William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford. He served in all the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halesworth
Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tributary of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth, upstream from Southwold. The town is served by Halesworth railway station on the Ipswich–Lowestoft East Suffolk Line. It is twinned with Bouchain in France and Eitorf in Germany. Nearby villages include Cratfield, Wissett, Chediston, Walpole, Suffolk, Walpole, Blyford, Linstead Parva, Wenhaston, Thorington, Spexhall, Bramfield, Suffolk, Bramfield, Huntingfield, Suffolk, Huntingfield, Cookley and Holton, Suffolk, Holton. History A Roman settlement, Halesworth has a medieval church; St Mary's with Victorian era, Victorian additions and a variety of houses, from early timber-framed buildings to the remnants of Victorian prosperity. Former almshouses used to house the Halesworth & District Museu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)
The 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was first raised in 1685 by the Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, Earl of Peterborough as the Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse by merging four existing troops of horse. Renamed several times, it was designated the Queen's Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1746 as it evolved into a dragoon unit (dragoons described a force of highly mobile mounted infantry equipped with lighter, faster horses and carrying firearms) and later named the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) in 1767 to reflect the custom of its soldiers riding only bay horses. The regiment served as horse cavalry until 1937, when it was mechanised with light tanks. The regiment became part of the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939. After service in the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars, the regiment amalgamated with the 1st King's Dragoon Guards in 1959 to form the 1st The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Nivelle
The Battle of Nivelle (10 November 1813) took place in front of the river Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War (1808–1814). After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops (20,000 of the Spaniards were untried in battle) were in hot pursuit of Marshal Soult who had 60,000 men to place in a 20-mile perimeter. After the Light Division, the main British army was ordered to attack and the 3rd Division split Soult's army in two. By two o'clock, Soult was in retreat and the British in a strong offensive position. Soult had lost another battle on French soil and had lost 4,500 men to Wellington's 5,500. Background In the Siege of San Sebastian, the Anglo-Portuguese stormed and captured the port at the beginning of September 1813. In the Battle of San Marcial on 31 August, Soult failed to break through the Spanish defences in his final attempt to relieve the siege. The French army then fell back to defend the Bid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Pyrenees
The Battle of the Pyrenees was a large-scale offensive (the author David Chandler recognises the 'battle' as an offensive) launched on 25 July 1813 by Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult from the Pyrénées region on Emperor Napoleon's order, in the hope of relieving French garrisons under siege at Pamplona and San Sebastián. After initial success the offensive ground to a halt in the face of increased allied resistance under the command of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington. Soult abandoned the offensive on 30 July and headed toward France, having failed to relieve either garrison. The Battle of the Pyrenees involved several distinct actions. On 25 July, Soult and two French corps fought the reinforced British 4th Division and a Spanish division at the Battle of Roncesvalles. The Allied force successfully held off all attacks during the day, but retreated from the Roncesvalles Pass that night in the face of overwhelming French numerical superiority. Also on the 25t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Vitoria
At the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813), a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British, Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese and Spanish Empire, Spanish army under the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria-Gasteiz, Vitoria in Spain, eventually leading to victory in the Peninsular War. Background In July 1812, after the Battle of Salamanca, the French had evacuated Madrid, which Wellington's army entered on 12 August 1812. Deploying three divisions to guard its southern approaches, Wellington marched north with the rest of his army to lay siege to the fortress of Burgos, away, but he had miscalculated the enemy's strength, and on 21 October he had to abandon the Siege of Burgos and retreat. By 31 October he had abandoned Madrid too and retreated first to Salamanca then to Ciudad Rodrigo, near the Portuguese frontier, to avoid encirclement by French ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Salamanca
The Battle of Salamanca (in French and Spanish known as the Battle of the Arapiles) took place on 22July 1812. An Anglo-Portuguese Army, Anglo-Portuguese army under the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Earl of Wellington (future Duke of Wellington) defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles, Salamanca, Arapiles, south of Salamanca, Spain, during the Peninsular War. A Spanish Army, Spanish division was also present but took no part in the battle. The battle involved a succession of Flanking maneuver, flanking manoeuvres in oblique order, initiated by the British heavy cavalry brigade and Edward Pakenham, Pakenham's 3rd Division and continued by the cavalry and the 4th, 5th and 6th divisions. These attacks resulted in a rout of the French left wing. Marmont and his deputy commander, General Bonet, received shrapnel wounds in the first few minutes of firing. Confusion amongst the French command may have been decisive in creating an opportunity, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Badajoz (1812)
In the siege of Badajoz (16 March – 6 April 1812), also called the third siege of Badajoz, an Anglo-Portuguese Army under the command of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, the Earl of Wellington (who was later made Duke of Wellington) besieged Badajoz, Spain, and forced the surrender of the First French Empire, French garrison. The siege was one of the bloodiest in the Napoleonic Wars and was considered a costly victory by the British, with some 4,800 Allied soldiers killed or wounded in a few short hours of intense fighting during the storming of the breaches as the siege drew to an end. Enraged at the huge number of casualties they suffered in seizing the city, the troops broke into houses and stores consuming vast quantities of alcohol with many of them then going on a rampage, threatening their officers and ignoring their commands to desist, and even killing several. It took three days before the men were brought back into order. When ord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Albuera
The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was a battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about south of the frontier fortress-town of Badajoz, Spain. From October 1810, Marshal Masséna's French Army of Portugal had been tied down in an increasingly hopeless stand-off against Wellington's Allied forces, safely entrenched in and behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. Acting on Napoleon's orders, in early 1811 Marshal Soult led a French expedition from Andalusia into in a bid to draw Allied forces away from the Lines and ease Masséna's plight. Napoleon's information was outdated and Soult's intervention came too late; starving and understrength, Masséna's army was already withdrawing to Spain. Soult was able to capture the strategically important fortress at Badajoz on the border between Spain and Portugal from the Spanish, but was f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Bussaco
The Battle of Buçaco () or Bussaco was fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulting in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army. Having occupied the heights of Bussaco, a long ridge located at 40°20'40"N, 8°20'15"W, with 25,000 British and the same number of Portuguese, Wellington was attacked five times successively by 65,000 French under Marshal André Masséna. Masséna was uncertain as to the disposition and strength of the opposing forces because Wellington had deployed them on the reverse slope of the ridge, where they could neither be easily seen nor easily softened up with artillery. The actual assaults were made by the corps of Marshal Michel Ney and General of Division (Major General) Jean Reynier, but after much fierce fighting they failed to dislodge the allied forces and were driven off after having lost 4,500 men against 1,250 Anglo-Portuguese casualt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army Gold Medal
The Army Gold Medal (1808–1814), also known as the Peninsular Gold Medal, with an accompanying Gold Cross, was a British campaign medal awarded in recognition of field officer, field and general officers' successful commands in campaigns, predominantly the Peninsular War. It was not a general medal, since it was issued only to officers whose status was no less than that of battalion commander or equivalent.Dorling, pages 54-55 Background Naval Gold Medals had been awarded since 1794 to captains and admirals who had served in specified successful naval actions, admirals' medals being larger. In 1806 a special gold medal was presented to British Army majors and above who had taken a key part in the Battle of Maida. This medal, in diameter, shows the profile of King George III on the obverse with a reverse design incorporating Britannia and the Sicilian triskeles. A general campaign medal for the Napoleonic Wars, awarded to all British troops irrespective of rank, would only be e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The Tower And Sword
The Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit (), before 1917 the ancient and most noble order of the Tower and of the Sword, of valour, loyalty and merit (), is one of the four former ancient Portuguese military orders and the pinnacle of the Portuguese honours system. It was created by King Afonso V in 1459. The order may be bestowed on people or on Portuguese municipalities. History The order was originally created by King Afonso V of Portugal in 1459, under the name of the ''Order of the Sword'', inspired by the legend that Arab rule in Africa would end when a Christian prince would besiege the fortress at Fez. Knighthood in the Order of the Sword was given as reward to those who participated in the conquests and battles in Africa. The order fell into disuse after the conquest of Tangiers and Asilah. The order was revived on 29 November 1808, by Prince Regent John, later John VI of Portugal. It commemorated the safe arrival of the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Guelphic Order
The Royal Guelphic Order (), sometimes referred to as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, is a Kingdom of Hanover, Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent (later King George IV). It takes its name from the House of Guelph, of which the House of Hanover was a branch. Since Hanover and the United Kingdom personal union, shared a monarch until 1837, the order was frequently bestowed upon British subjects. History Until 1837 the order was frequently awarded to officers in the British Royal Navy, Navy and British Army, Army, although it was still classed as a foreign order, with British members of the order not entitled to style themselves as "Sir" unless they were also created Knights Bachelor, as many were. The British link ended in 1837 when Kingdom of Hanover, Hanover's royal union with Great Britain ended, with Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, Ernest Augustus becoming King of Hanover and Queen Victoria ascending the British throne. When Hanover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
