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Cranston Fine Arts  Military Art and Artists 17th - 18th Century History 17th to 18th Century Regiments  1st Regiment of Foot Guards |
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Defence of Hougoumont Farm by Robert Hillingford. 1st Foot Guards and The Coldstream Guards are shown manning the walls of Hougoumont Farm against the heavy French forces at the height of the the Battle of Waterloo. Also shown are some captured French soldiers. During the Battle of Waterloo the 1st Foot Guards and the Coldstream Guards losses were as follows: 1st Foot Guards - 125 Killed, 352 Wounded, and the Coldstream Guards - 97 killed and 446 wounded and four missing. |
Red Square by Chris Collingwood. The 2nd Battalion centre company 1st Regiment of Foot Guards under attack from the French Red Lancers at Waterloo, 18th June 1815. |
Up Guards and at Them by Richard Caton Woodville. Wellington orders the Grenadier Guards to advance during the closing stages of the Battle of Waterloo. |
1st Regiment of Foot Guards in Marching Order No text for this item |
Defence of Hougoumont Farm at the Battle of Waterloo by Jason Askew. The British 1st Foot Guards and Coldstream Guards rush to defend the gate of Hougoumont Farm against a fierce French attack during the battle of Waterloo. During the battle, the Coldstream Guards lost 97 killed, 446 wounded and 4 missing, while the 1st Foot Guards lost 125 killed and 352 wounded. |
1st Regiment of Foot Guards at Waterloo by Brian Palmer. The light company of the 1st Foot Guards commanded by Lord Saltoun, defending the hollow way, behind Hougoumont. |
The Battle of Fontenoy by Felix Philippoteaux. The Duke of Cumberland, their colonel, commanding the allied forces; measured his strength with Marshal Saxe, who was then besieging Tournay. The First Guards were on the right of the centre, in the first line, when the Duke, furious at the failure on both wings, ordered the masses of troops to attack. The infantry dashed forward between the village and the redoubt, and as the British Guards advanced over a low ridge, and saw the French Guards before them, a scene occurred which has become legendary in military history. 'Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers!' is a phrase that bespeaks the old fashioned chivalry with which foemen worthy of each other's steel loved to treat one another. The story of what occurred is variously given. 'The officers of the English Guards,' says Voltaire, 'when in the presence of the enemy, saluted the French by taking off their hats. The Comte de Chabannes, and the Duc de Biron, who were in advance returned the salute, as did all the officers of the French Guards. Lord Charles Hay of the King's Company, 1st Guards, stepped forward and took off his hat. Lord Charles Hay then pulled out a flask and drank a toast to the French, saying: 'Gentlemen of the French Guard, I hope you will wait for us today and not escape by swimming the Scheldt as you swam the Main at Dettingen.' Then he turned to his Company and said: 'Men of the King's Company, these are the French Guards and I hope you are going to beat them today.' Count D'Anteroche, lieutenant of grenadiers, replied in a loud voice: 'Gentlemen, we never fire first; we will follow you.' The French troops opened fire first but most of their shots went high. Then the British troops opened fire and nineteen officers and up to 600 men of the French Guards are said to have fallen at the first discharge, as the English pushed on, the enemy were borne back, and in the face of a terrific fire, the Guards drove them into their camp. Here, exposed to the tremendous reverse fire of the redoubt of Eu, the Guards according to Rousseau, formed themselves into a kind of square, and resisted repeated attacks of the cavalry of the French Guards and Carabineers. But unsupported and decimated by the withering hail of iron that assailed them, attacked by fresh troops and the Irish brigades of Clare and Dillon, beset as in a fiery furnace, the Guards at length began to retire. They did so in perfect order; but the First Guards left 4 officers, 3 sergeants and 82 men dead on the field, besides having 149 wounded in all. It was a defeat due to bad generalship and want of cohesion among allies, but its sanguinary episodes added new lustre to the great fame of the Guards. 'There are things, 'says Marshal Saxe, - or some say his friend General D'Heronville, in his Trait des Legions - 'which all of us have seen, but of which our pride makes us silent because we well know we cannot imitate them.' Fontenoy was a defeat for the British army. During the battle Lord Charles Hay was wounded but would later be in action again. |
Hougoumont by Robert Gibb. Showing the 1st Foot Guards and The Coldstream Guards struggling to close the gates at Hougoumont Farm against the Heavy French forces at the Height of the the battle of waterloo. During the Battle of waterloo the 1st Foot Guards and the Coldstream Guards losses were as follows. 1st Foot Guards, 125 Killed, 352 Wounded, and the Coldstream Guards losses, were 97 killed and 446 wounded and four missing. |
Assault on the Breach of San Sebastian by Mark Churms. The Storming party, 750 volunteers, included 200 men of the Guards, one hundred each from the First and Coldstream Guards. They moved off at two in the morning on the 31st August 1813, and occupied a ruined convent where they remained till half past nine. Aware of the almost impossible task ahead of them, and subjected to a violent electric thunderstorm, the troops waited in a state of savage anticipation. Wild senseless laughter was said to have preceded the attack on the breach which could not be entered except in single file under heavy fire. The troops attacked in succession, but were struck down by hundreds. General Graham then ordered the artillery to fire over the heads of the assailants, clearing the ramparts. A shell ignited a quantity of powder, and under cover of the explosions, the storming party forced its way into the town. San Sebastian was savagely sacked and burned, and the good name of Wellingtons Army suffered as it had done at Badajoz. The civilians were raped, robbed and murdered in revenge for the heavy losses suffered by the troops. The Franco-Spanish governor retired the citadel (San Marcial) and on the 9th September, after a gallant resistance of over a week, surrendered the charge he had so faithfully defended. The casualties among the officers of the first Guards were one Officer, Ensign Burrard, First battalion (a son of Sir Henry Burrard who was responsible for the disastrous Treaty of Cintra) severely wounded, since dead, and one Officer, Ensign Orlando Bridgeman, wounded. In the Coldstream Guards, one officer ensign Thomas Chaplin, According to Lord Saltoun there were in round numbers, 150 casualties amongst 200 Guardsman. Total losses of volunteers from all regiments were 1500 men. (text by Atlanta Clifford, assistant to the Curator-The Guards Museum) In the painting. you see Ensign Chaplin lying wounded, attended by an Officer of the Coldstream Guards, Orlando Bridgeman is calling Assistant Surgeon Bacot, First Foot Guards, to go to the aid of his fellow officer, Burrard. |
Grenadiers of the Foot Guards in Full Dress by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith. Modern reprint of the coloured lithograph vignettes by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith from Charles Hamilton Smiths Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812, published by Colnaghi & Co. 1812-1815, showing the British uniform of 1812 during the Napoleonic war. Only 800 have been reprinted in 2002. |
Now Maitland Now is Your Time by Thomas Jones Barker. The Duke of Wellington orders Maitland to move the infantry of the guard forward at the climax of the Battle of Waterloo during the Napoleonic war. |
Grenadier Officer, 1st Guards 1688 by P H Smitherman In 1677 the hand grenade was introduced into the army as one of its weapons, and a grenadier company was added to each infantry regiment. This company was composed of picked men, of good physique; it took the place of honour on the right of the line, and assumed a dress different from that of the rest of the regiment. In particular the grenadiers wore a characteristic cap. The usual broad-rimmed hat no doubt interfered with the slinging of the flintlock and the throwing of the grenades, and so a brimless hat was worn which soon became very ornamented. The hat shown here is a very early one and is very decorative, its shape being different from that of the more familiar mitre illustrated elsewhere. Grenadiers coats were also laced differently from those of the rest of the regiment in many cases. The song The British Grenadiers, refers to their looped clothes, alluding no doubt to the extra loops of lace, or tassels, with which they were adorned. The coat worn by this officer is quite different from that worn elsewhere in the regiment at this time. Note its claret colour - a colour worn by the grenadiers of the regiment many years afterwards. It will be noticed that he carries a firelock but no sword. Usually the sword has been the weapon of an officer, and a musket or rifle that of a private soldier. At this time, however, the musket was a new weapon, and musketeers were rapidly ousting pikemen from the ranks. The musket was therefore regarded as a weapon of honour, and was carried by all officers of grenadier companies, instead of the pike, or half pike, carried by officers of battalion companies. Grenadier officers usually carried a sword as well, but this officer carries a plug bayonet instead. The whole uniform, with its embroidery and gold lace, gives one the impression of a ceremonial dress rather than one intended for use on active service, for which he would possibly have worn something a little less expensive. |
Officer, 1st Guards 1775 by P H Smitherman This image, based on actual uniforms, shown an officer of the 1st Guards in ceremonial dress.On parade he would be armed with a spontoon as well as his sword. The officers of the other Guards regiments would have been dressed very similarly. A notable feature are the bastion loops of gold lace on the lapels. These became very popular and were adopted by many regiments. All of these bars and loops of lace, of course, developed from the button-holes originally on the coats. Hitherto the skirts of the coat had been lined with the facing colour, blue in the Foot Guards, but here they are white, and it was now almost universal for skirts to be lined like this. These white turn-backs, fastened with an ornamental device, survived in vestigial form on the tails of the coatee until the Crimean war, after which the whole coatee was replaced by a tunic, cut in modern fashion. The braiding on the mess dress of captains and above in the Royal Navy still shows the outline of the pockets worn on coats of this period. |
Privates of the First Regiment of Foot Guards on Service No text for this item |
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