Excellent Sergeant – Major, 15th Hussars, With Sahagun, Served with regiment during it’s charge at Sahagun where they broke two French cavalry regiments , Mentioned in the regimental history as having ‘Specially signalised themselves in action in the Peninsula, South of France and at Waterloo’. Additionally present with the regiment at the time of Peterloo, 1819 where the 15th Hussars, in rather more controvertial manner, cleared the field.

M.G.S. 3 Clasps, Sahagun, Vittoria, Toulouse  (Troop Sergeant Major), Waterloo (Sergeant)

William Farr, 15th or King’s Reg. Hussars

Enlisted , 1799, Born Leicester, served for 26 years, 315 days plus 2 years for Waterloo , disch 1825, died 1849.

XVTH (The King’s) Hussars 1759 – 1913 by Whylly, P.256,

‘Specially signalised themselves in action in the Peninsula, South of France and at Waterloo, Sergeant William Farr’

Sahagun, charge of the 15th Hussars

The 15th Hussars charged, over about 400 yards (370 m) of snowy, frozen ground, shouting “Emsdorf and Victory!”, the Battle of Emsdorf being an earlier action, 16 July 1760, in which the 15th had played a notable part.  It was so cold the hussars wore their pelisses, rather than having them slung over their shoulders, and many had cloaks over all. Eyewitnesses also spoke of numbed hands hardly able to grasp reins and sabres. The impact when the hussars met the chasseurs was terrible, as one British officer recorded: “horses and men were overthrown and a shriek of terror, intermixed with oaths, groans and prayers for mercy issued from the whole extent of their front.” The impetus of the British hussars carried them through the ranks of the chasseurs and into those of the dragoons behind. The French force was broken, and it routed eastwards with the British in pursuit. Many French cavalrymen (though the chasseurs were largely of German origin) were taken prisoner at very little cost to the 15th Hussars. Two French lieutenant colonels were captured and the chasseurs, who lost many men captured, ceased to exist as a viable regiment. The 10th Hussars came up during the pursuit, however, they were initially mistaken for French cavalry. This caused the 15th Hussars to break off their pursuit to re-form, ending the action.’

Peterloo

Extracts from The Charge of the 15th Hussars at Peterloo as described by Sir WILLIAM G. H. JOLLIFFE, Bart., M.P. in a letter which appears in Dean Pellew’s Life of Lord Sidmouth, Vol. III.
9 St. James’s Place, London
April 11th, 1845.
To Thomas Grimston Bucknall Estcourt, Esq. M.P.
My Dear Sir,
Twenty-five years have passed since the collision unfortunately occurred between the
population of Manchester and its neighbourhood and the military stationed in that town, on the sixteenth of August, 1819.
I was at that time a Lieutenant in the 15th King’s Hussars, which Regiment had been quartered in Manchester Cavalry Barracks about six weeks………….

It was then for the first time that I saw the Manchester troop of Yeomanry; they were scattered singly or in small groups over the greater part of the field, literally hemmed up and hedged into the mob so that they were powerless either to make an impression or to escape; in fact, they were in the power of those whom they were designed to overawe, and it required only a glance to discover their helpless position, and the necessity of our being brought to their rescue. As I was at the time informed, this hopeless state of things happened thus: A platform had been erected near the centre of the field, from which Mr. Hunt and others were to address the multitude, and the magistrates, having ordered a strong body of constables to arrest the speakers, unfortunately imagined that they should support the peace officers by bringing up the troop of Yeomanry at a walk. The result of this movement, instead of that which the magistrates desired, was unexpectedly to place this small body of horsemen (so introduced into a dense mob) entirely at the mercy of the people by whom they were, on all sides, pressed upon and surrounded.
The charge of the Hussars, to which I have just alluded, swept this mingled mass of human beings before it; people, yeomen, and constables, in their confused attempts to escape, ran one over the other; so that by the time we had arrived at the end of the field the fugitives were literally piled up to a considerable elevation above the level of the ground…..

the way, state that this field, as it is called, was merely an open space of ground, surrounded by buildings, and itself, I rather think, in course of being built upon).
The Hussars drove the people forward with the flats of their swords, but sometimes, as is almost inevitably the case when men are placed in such situations, the edge was used, both by the Hussars, and, as I have heard, by the yeomen also; but of this last part I was not cognizant, and believing though I do that nine out of ten of the sabre wounds were caused by the Hussars, I must still consider that it redounds to the humane forbearance of the men of the 15th that more wounds were not received, when the vast numbers are taken into consideration with whom they were brought into hostile collision; beyond all doubt, however, the far greater amount of injuries were from the pressure of the routed multitude. The Hussars on the left pursued down the various streets which led from the place; those on the right met with something more of resistance. The mob had taken possession of various buildings on that side, particularly of a Quakers’ chapel and burial ground enclosed with a wall. This they occupied for some little time, and in attempting to displace them, some of the men and horses were struck with stones and brickbats. I was on the left, and as soon as I had passed completely over the ground and found myself in the street on the other side, I turned back, and then, seeing a sort of fight still going on, on the right, I went in that direction. At the very moment I reached the Quakers’ meeting-house, I saw a farrier of the 15th ride at a small door in the outer wall, and to my surprise his horse struck it with such force that it flew open. Two or three Hussars then rode in, and the place was immediately in their possession. I then turned towards the elevated platform, which still remained in the centre of the field with persons upon it; a few straggling Hussars and yeomen, together with a number of men having the appearance of peace-officers were congregating about it. On my way thither I met the Commanding officer of my Regiment, who directed me to find a Trumpeter, in order that he might sound the “rally” or “ retreat.” This sent me again down the street I had first been in (after the pursuing men of my troop); but I had not ridden above a hundred yards before I found a Trumpeter, and returned with him to the Colonel. The field and the adjacent streets now presented an extraordinary sight: the ground was quite covered with hats, shoes, musical instruments, and other things. Here and there lay the unfortunates who were too much injured to move away, and this sight was rendered the more distressing by observing some women among the sufferers.’

Civilian casualties at Peterloo vary by estimate, with 11-15 killed and wounded between 400-600. Many did not report their injuries for fear of subsequent arrest

A lovely senior NCO pair of medals