{"product_id":"4th-light-dragoons-peninsula-war-best-swordsman-prize-1808","title":"4th Light Dragoons - Peninsula War Best Swordsman Prize, 1808","description":"\u003cp\u003eOverall: 4.2cm (1.5in) x 5.9cm (i2.2n)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSilver. Kidney shaped and cast with a trophy of arms and inscribed ‘LT. IV. Ds’; the reverse engraved ‘THE \/ TRANSFERABLE PRIZE \/ FOR THE BEST SWORDSMAN \/ PRESENTED BY \/ LIEUT. COL I.C. DALBIAC \/ 1808’. The upper part fitted with suspension loop. Cased.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLieutenant-Colonel James Charles Dalbiac (1776-1847), a wealthy officer from Berkshire, was of French Huguenot descent. He was second lieutenant-colonel to Lord Edward Somerset, when the 4th Light Dragoons landed at Lisbon, Portugal in April 1808. The regiment fought its first action on 27-28 July 1809 when Dalbiac ‘led the left wing of his regiment in the famous charge at Talavera’ (DNB). The regiment which generally numbered less than 500-strong, was destined to remain abroad for a total of 62 months, making it one of the longest serving in the Peninsula Army. Dalbiac, for his part, was unusual for the time in that he spent his whole service from 1793 in the same regiment. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003eRead more \u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e~section 2~\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/7008\/3014\/files\/Screenshot-2023-08-30-171311-1-e1693412940479_480x480.png?v=1781785333\" alt=\"\" style=\"float: none;\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe served throughout the Peninsular campaigns of 1810, 1811, and 1812, and commanded the 4th Light Dragoons, in the absence of Somerset, in the cavalry affairs of Campo Mayor on 25 March, and of Los Santos on 16 April 1811, and also in Cotton's spirited attack on Soult's rearguard at Llerena on 11 April 1812. He was further present at the battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812 when the 4th Light Dragoons were brigaded with the 5th Dragoon Guards and 3rd Light Dragoons, under the command of Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant. Interestingly, in the context of present object, Le Marchant was one of Britain’s most brilliant cavalry officers and a visionary reformer responsible for the founding of Sandhurst. Appalled by the poor standard of swordsmanship in the British Army, he designed 1796 pattern cavalry sabre, wrote the definitive manual on sword fighting, and personally trained regiments across Britain. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt Salamanca, Le Marchant’s efforts were rewarded when acting on Wellington’s order, he led the 3rd and 4th Light Dragoons and the 5th Dragoon Guards in what was probably the most destructive charge made by a single brigade of cavalry in the whole Napoleonic period. The left wing of the French army were on the point of being defeated by the Anglo-Portuguese infantry when Le Marchant's dragoons charged in and destroyed battalion after battalion. Many of the French infantrymen sought the protection of the British infantry to escape the sabres of the Dalbiac’s dragoons. Le Marchant, knowing he had achieved a magnificent success, was leading a squadron against the last of the formed French infantry when he was shot through his spine and killed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout these trials and tribulations Dalbiac was often accompanied by his wife. ‘The wife of Colonel Dalbiac, an English lady of a gentle disposition, and possessing a very delicate frame, had braved the dangers and endured the privations of two campaigns with the patient fortitude which belongs only to her sex. In this battle, forgetful of everything but the strong affection which had so long supported her, she rode deep amidst the enemy's fire, trembling, yet irresistibly impelled forwards by feelings more imperious than terror, more piercing than the fear of death’ (Napier’s \u003ci\u003ePeninsular War\u003c\/i\u003e, Vol.XVIII, Ch.iii.).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDalbiac and his wife returned to England after Salamanca, and she gave birth to their only daughter Susanna in 1814. The following year, they purchased Moulton Hall, Richmond, in Susanna’s native county of Yorkshire. There followed a period of service in India, where as a Brigadier-General, he commanded the Gujarat district of Bombay between 1822-4. He was promoted Major-General in 1825. King William IV made him a Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (KCH), a Hanoverian Order of chivalry founded by George IV. Dalbiac then went on to be the Member of Parliament for Ripon between 1835 and 1837. In 1836, his daughter Susanna married James, 6th Duke of Roxburghe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Armoury St James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57303503929717,"sku":null,"price":1850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/7008\/3014\/files\/L1690832.jpg?v=1781785375","url":"https:\/\/armoury.co.uk\/products\/4th-light-dragoons-peninsula-war-best-swordsman-prize-1808","provider":"The Armoury St James's","version":"1.0","type":"link"}