"Uxbridge's Uniform at Waterloo" Topic

i know he was wearing a hussar uniform. Can't seem to find the source. Anyone has a reference?

There's rather a nice portrait by Pieneman of him at Waterloo on his wiki entry. It shows him in a shako however and I always imagined him in a busby!

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FWIW

And another

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There is a plate by Hourtoulle showing Uxbridge in a gala uniform of the 7th Hussars – light brown busby with red bag, white plume and gold cords, blue dolman and pelisse with blue collar and cuffs with gold trim, lace and cording.
Red lined pelisse with black fur and red/gold barrel sash.
Grey overalls with broad gold stripe. Red sabertache with gold edge and cypher. Leopard skin saddle cover edged red over a blue shabraque edged with gold outer, red middle and thin gold inner striping ( the inner gold one in a zig-zag pattern), silver cyphers. Blue valise with gold trim and 'VII LD' in gold on the ends.
I don't know if this is really what he wore but is VERY striking and flashy.

Osprey M@A 84 – Wellington's Generals shows him in a similar less-flashy (rain-gear) version but with blue shako with gold edging that covers half the height of the shako, brown fur on the pelisse and blue overalls.

Cliff

I remember seeing a uniform in Plas Newydd, the Earl's Anglesey home, some thirty years ago. If memory still serves, it included a gold-laced shako. Bought a postcard at the time but don't think I have it anymore. Perhaps the NT staff there can help?
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He should be in Uniforms of Waterloo by Haythornwaite or the movie Waterloo uniform book by Pericole?.

I just checked and he's not in Uniforms of Waterloo by Haythornthwaite.

In a private collection in England there is a watercolor executed of Uxbridge probably a few days before the start of the campaign, supposedly on the Duchess of Richmond's request.

Uxbridge wears a dark blue dolman and pelisse – fur of the pelisse is brown – we know otherwise that he had red breeches

interestingly the watercolor shows a clean shaven Uxbridge – no mustache and sligtly balding – quite close to the portrait of him done in 1816.

YM

I've checked The Armies at Waterloo by Ugo Pericoli and he says: "Lord Uxbridge wore hussar costume, probably the uniform of colonel of the Seventh Hussars but possibly, since he was a great dandy, the special uniform for a general of hussars".

Uxbridge is on the left side of this picture leading a cavalry charge and is shown in a brown shako:

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But there's also a watercolour of him by JA Atkinson that shows him in white breeches with gold hussar knots. I'm afraid I can't find an image of this on the net.

(I meant no illustration, SJ.)

I painted mine in dark blue like the Pieneman portrait, with a leopardskin over his saddle. a friend of mine swears that he should be in red, with a tiger skin. Neither of us can prove it definitively one way or the other, so I'm resolved not to worry about it :)

I could swear he's in a book everyone's familiar with just labeled as a general and not necessarily Uxbridge. I'll look at my books again.

I realise I'm reviving a very old thread, but has anyone more data on what Uxbridge wore at Waterloo. Perry website has him in red top, and I think a dark blue pelise, with a tiger skin, But I can't help thinking a dark blue top was more likely, standard hussar uniform.

Considering Uxbridge's uniform that he wore on the day is still in existence and even his cut up, blood bespattered 'dark blue' trousers and sabretache are too. you can be sure that Osprey's rendition of his uniform is pretty accurate

This link includes the Osprey illustration and sabretache

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link to his uniform

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Paul :)

All a bit confusing. One link above is Vivian and some relate to Paget/Uxbridge/Anglesey in the Peninsula.

Indeed his uniform is better preserved than anything Wellington sported on the big day. (For DoW we have his sabre and his boots, both a surprise for me but shown with confidence for the 200 year thing)

Google Plas Newydd, (Wales…nearly Ireland) and you'll see his pelisse, his shako (I do admit I find the hanging feathered plume a bit surprising for 1815 and more like 1816/17) but especially his overalls, cut away for emergency treatment. His sabretache, the saw and his ADC's blood-soaked glove is still at the newly re-opened NAM in London.

Something else I have enjoyed. How much more sophisticated are the answers to such queries nowadays, compared with 2009. What did we do without the IT resources we now take for granted? We quoted films and what a picture book said…..

I think the first model is nearest to his look on 18th June but cannot for one moment imagine him with a tigerskin shabraque on campaign in the rain in Belgian mud. Even the officer's saddlery of 7th Hussars is a bit "parade ground" but more likely.

I am somewhat confused, are we talking about a shako- as per the Osprey illustration, or a fur 'busby' – which seems also to be on display at Plas Newydd?

(at 0.37 here:
YouTube link

For the record:

From the diary of J. W. Croker, a friend of Wellington, written on 8 December 1818. Horace Seymour was the man who carried the wounded Uxbridge from the battlefield.

Rode with Horace Seymour. He was next to Lord Uxbridge when he was shot; he cried out:
"I have got it at last." And the Duke of Wellington only replied: "No? Have you, by God?

Sorry! the link to my Vivian miniature was a an error. I have edited the post.

ignore the top two pictures.

The shako with the falling feathers is a post Waterloo 1816 type.

Paul :)

another link to parts of his Waterloo uniform

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Paul :)

Brilliant, thanks guys a great source of info.

The shako question. I would again agree that the falling plume of feathers is more 1820s than 1815…but the look was not unknown. The Brunswick hussars or Leib battalion are seen with a similar horse hair arrangement, even for rank and file.

the possibilities are;

This Shako was worn at Waterloo, as claimed, but was very much the height of the coming fashion, as it widened towards the top. Bell shaped. Uxbridge was a dandy after all. The style had to start somewhere. (most contemporary paintings and esp the link shown by Dibble show this far more than any busby).

The feathered plume was a later addition. It is lacking in the illustrations shown……most of them anyway.

The Colpack was probably the look in the Peninsula and he tended to favour a combination of 7th Hussar officer with general of Hussars "uniform". I am convinced by Osprey and the beautiful model I showed above. But with a much simpler horse furniture. Some one would surely have commented if he had turned out with such as a dead tiger on 18th June. Murat maybe….

I think I would give most credence to Dighton's picture of Uxbridge at the battle. It is the most contemporary, and Dighton, pere et fils; were both sticklers!

Certainly agree Dighton was good on the British uniforms anyway, but even then, see those light blue overalls on Uxbridge? But indeed, that is how I see Uxbridge featuring that day….. and without the plume……

There is a hussar general depicted in Haythornthwaite's Uniforms of the Pensinsular War who, while not Uxbridge, is rather splendid.

Can it be, that Lord Uxbridge as depicted in 'Waterloo'(1970) was incorrectly dressed??

4.00

YouTube link

It indeed could be so.

As I recall, the hussar general was Stapleton Cotton….I'll have to check, at home

Recently got my hands on Philip Haythornthwaite's "Wellington's Army", a nice annotated volume of the C. Hamilton Smith plates. Apparently, specific uniforms were authorized for major-generals of light dragoons and hussars. The book has the only the light dragoon uniform (as do some other works, such as Elting's book on the Knotel plates), but Haythornthwaite has this to say about the hussar uniform:

"Although following the usual hussar style, the generals' uniform was unique in having a scarlet dolman and breeches, dark blue pelisse, a profusion of gold lace and either a tall fur cap or, more rarely, a shako. (The December 1811 regulations merely note that with the established uniform, at a drawing room or levee, generals of hussars were to wear 'scarlet pantaloons ornamented with gold".). The uniform is shown in several portraits including those of the Prince Regent, the Marquess of Anglesey, the Marquess of Londonderry (better known in the Napoleonic Wars as General Charles William Stewart), Sir Hussey Vivian, Lord Combermere and the Duke of Cumberland, and it was even worn with the Army of the North in 1813. Some of these illustrations depict yellow boots, one of the most decorative items worn by hussar officers in full dress."

Well, we do know at least that Uxbridge was wearing sober dark blue overalls at Waterloo and, presumably, the pelisse displayed with them at Plas Newydd, as shown in the images in deadhead's post,

The question seems to be whether Uxbridge was also wearing the 'anachronistic' shako displayed with them. Given that the damaged trousers survived the campaign (remarkably) do we assume his headgear did as well?

The shako was worn 'rarely' in 1811, according to Haythornthwaite but we know that, generally speaking, uniforms changed considerably between then and 1815; amd again soon after Waterloo.

I am not sure whether Usbridge's being a dandy is relevant. Non-regulation items tended to plain and predicted on comfort and a degree of practicality (See Wellington's frock coat or Picton's hat).

In that regard, a fur 'busby' would have been lighter but a heavier shako may have offered more protection from sword cuts.

British military history is replete with general officers inventing their own uniforms. However, I wonder whether an officer, however much the dandy, would have had an entirely non-regulation full dress shako made up to his own taste, even if expense was no option.

On balance, it seems more likely that the shako was matched to the overalls and pelisse after the war. Maybe Plas Newydd have information that proves otherwise.