"Lord George Beresford - overrepresented?" Topic

Looking at 28mm manufacturers of British Napoleonic Generals I noticed that both Front Rank and Redoubt Miniatures produce a figure of General Beresford.
Lieutenant-Colonel Beresford was promoted to Colonel in January 1812 and in June 1814 was promoted to Major General. However in the 20 years he had been in the Army he only served on garrison duty and had never seen combat!
Although he was appointed to Wellington's staff on 18 August 1815, his appointment was to date from 22 June and he was to command 8th Cavalry Brigade but by the time this was organised all of the major fighting had ended.
So in terms of wargaming he could be classed as a non-starter! So if anyone bought the figure, who else might they represent other than Beresford?

Wrong Beresford. General William Beresford (1768-1854) had seen tons of active service before becoming the CinC of the Portuguese army. He commanded the joint Anglo-Portuguese army at Badajoz, Albuera, etc.

What, who cares there is a character we all know and respect his achievements therefore a figure is designed and people want, his career was wide and full of action, I dont understand some people. Whty is ist important, buy it or not, paint it as beresford or some other nympty general – really

This doesn't even make my Top 10 list of things to be outraged about today.

"hannover", you have described the wrong Beresford. The famous figure is William Carr Beresford who joined the army in 1785. He had distinguished service at Toulon commanding the 88th Foot with subsequent service in India.

Served in the first Egyptian campaign, and participated in the capture of the Cape in 1806.

After the disastrous Buenos Ayres campaign near the end of 1807, he was appointed governor of Madeira where he learned to speak Portuguese.

After serving under both Moore and Wellesley in the Peninsula he was invited by the Portuguese crown in March of 1809 to command and reorganize the Portuguese army with the rank of Marshal although a substantive LtGen. in the British Army.

He commanded troops at the battles of Busaco, Albuera and Salamanca, when he was severely wounded. After recovering he continued to command throughout most of the remaining Peninsular battles.

He was of the few generals that Wellington would trust with an independent command. The other was Hill. So, he does certainly rate a unique figure.

Thanks everyone, knew there had to be a logical answer.
Glad I bought him!

Maybe the real issue is that we don't have enough figures representing Beresford. Surely he wore many different uniforms across many changes of shape, size, and hairline across all those years of service…

"This doesn't even make my Top 10 list of things to be outraged about today."

Well, someone's getting picky in his old age? The OFM I knew would have stretched the list as long as it took in order to fit this one in!

Worth noting that, at Albuhera, having watched some Polish uhlans destroy one of his British brigades, an unarmed Beresford took on one of the lancers (unarmed), deflected the lance thrust, lifted the miscreant bodily out of his own saddle by the throat, and threw him to the ground.