"Peninsula battle honour" Topic

Yet another Waterloo flag query to try and sort out confusion from using multiple sources.

The 'Peninsula' battle honour was awarded in 1815 according to Osprey. Was it before or after Waterloo ?

i.e. would those units entitled to it have it on their flags at Waterloo ?

I have two examples of flags supposed to be at Waterloo and one has it on, the other doesn't (both were entitled to it).

1-none, the award was after the battle
2-all the award was well before the battle
3-some may have had it, others not
4-your guess is as good as mine

Thanks

Tony of TTT

There would be variations depending on the circumstances. Not all units at Waterloo were Peninsular veterans so there would be no battle honour. For others, there may have been a delay in attaching the honours as they were awaiting the presentation of new colours and thus were 'caught out' by the 100 Days, especially if they were hurried back from America.

As with all armies, central decisions were not applied in a monolithic manner so '3' is probably the best answer.

Battle Honours tended to be painted/sewn onto existing Colours as soon as they were awarded in the British tradition.

Reactionary, I agree with you. What I meant was that if a unit was in line for new colours (and with all the campaign wear I suspect a few were) they may have put off attaching the honour in the expectation of receiving their new ones with the honour included.

Just a theory.

I don't imagine the military worrying too much about getting something done twic – get it on the colours cos we're proud of it and order the new colours with it already on – I'd imagine?