Bombardier | 20 Apr 2015 5:27 a.m. PST |
Does anyone know if British officers in Portuguese service wore their own uniforms or adopted Portuguese dress? Bdr. |
MajorB | 20 Apr 2015 6:04 a.m. PST |
I think they wore their own uniforms but am willing to be corrected … |
summerfield | 20 Apr 2015 6:34 a.m. PST |
That is a very interesting question. I thought they would wear Portuguese Uniform as they could not wear the rank on teh British Uniform. They got a one ot two rank advancement. Stephen |
Artilleryman | 20 Apr 2015 7:17 a.m. PST |
British officers in Portuguese service wore their Portuguese unit's uniform. As evidence, look at Marshal Beresford and Colonel Dickson. The latter was a Royal Artillery major but Wellington wanted him as his artillery commander so he wore his Portuguese colonel's uniform. |
Edwulf | 20 Apr 2015 7:44 a.m. PST |
On my understanding they were fully members of the Portuguese army NOT on attachement. So they would have worn Portuguese uniform. |
Artilleryman | 20 Apr 2015 8:56 a.m. PST |
Well …. they still had their ranks, pay and seniority in the British Army but they were detached and commissioned into the Portuguese Army with appropriate Portuguese pay and uniforms. As they gained one to two ranks this meant quite an increase in income and thus was a popular move. |
Murvihill | 20 Apr 2015 9:13 a.m. PST |
I have a book of peninsular war uniforms (I can check the name at home) & the picture of Beresford has him in red. |
Artilleryman | 20 Apr 2015 9:49 a.m. PST |
Murvihill, I have also seen pictures of Beresford in red, but also lots of him in blue in the field. |
rmaker | 20 Apr 2015 10:03 a.m. PST |
Remember, for a general officer in Wellington's army "uniform" meant whatever the gentleman felt like wearing. |
Supercilius Maximus | 20 Apr 2015 11:01 p.m. PST |
Is it true that Wellington used the Portuguese army to promote Irish Catholic officers of his own command, who often had less money and patronage? |
Edwulf | 20 Apr 2015 11:32 p.m. PST |
I'm sure some of them were but many were a English and Scottish. A good number were men promoted from the ranks I think. |
Supercilius Maximus | 22 Apr 2015 3:16 p.m. PST |
Yes, I believe a lot of the training was done by former sergeants promoted to become Adjutants (which was, of course, what happened quite a lot in the British Army anyway). I was thinking more of some of the officers who became brigade commanders, such as Doyle and Power (and although his family were Protestants, I seem to recall Bereford's parentage was a little dodgy and he might have been half-Catholic, too). |
Mserafin | 22 Apr 2015 7:10 p.m. PST |
As they gained one to two ranks this meant quite an increase in income and thus was a popular move. I believe the deal was you went up two ranks in Portuguese service, and one when you returned to British service. So a major would be a brigadier in the Portuguese service, then return to British service as a colonel. A very nice deal for an officer without the money to buy his way into higher rank. |
Brechtel198 | 23 Apr 2015 2:21 a.m. PST |
The other 'option' is that a competent officer could gain rank and authority and this was used in order to employ a valuable officer in a higher billet that he could not be employed in because of his relatively low rank in the British service. This was the case with Alexander Dickson, a highly competent artillery officer, who, because of the seniority rules in the artillery could not be promoted as he deserved. By assuming Portuguese rank Wellington could then employ him as an artillery commander, and Dickson became Wellington's artillery commander in Spain, a post which Dickson fully deserved. He would have had the same position in Belgium in 1815 but he had been on the unsuccessful New Orleans expedition in Louisiana and got to Belgium too late to be appointed to that position and he had to accept another one with the army. I would suggest that Dickson, along with Fraser, was the best British artillery senior officer of the period. |