Single Campaign Medals


I wish now to look back a little. When first I went out to the Peninsula, we had no tents for the first four years; we were always en bivouac, marching and counter-marching day and night; lay down when we got a chance - and that was seldom. A clean shirt was a luxury that very few officers could command. As for a cooked dinner, it was a godsend. You drove your dinner before you on the march; and when you got a chance of cooking one, you could see the meat jump in the pot. But God help the poor fellow who, after a long march, found out it was his turn for out-lying piquet! We felt very much the want of salt, water, &c. I have been for days hanging on the rear of the retreating enemy, skirmishing the whole time, and when a halt sounded, would be asleep before I was properly on the ground, hungry or not. In particular, on our retreat from Madrid, we were so hard pushed that we could not get time to cook our victuals, little as it was; for, no sooner did we get our fires lighted, and our mess tins on, that the enemy’s shot would scatter them for us, and we would have to be off again, carrying a camp kettle between two of us, and dividing our mess as we went along, half raw, till we pulled up at Ciudad Rodrigo. When we left Madrid we got as much biscuit as we could carry, but never got any more until we came to Ciudad Rodrigo; and to help us on the way, it rained day and night the whole time. Still we were in good health, but very much troubled with overgrown appetites. At one time in Galicia we were nearly surrounded by the French, with a large river behind us; we had to live seven days on acorns, and could get nothing else; we cracked them, then roasted them.


After the battle of Talavera, we had to retire to the celebrated lines of Torres Vedras, where we had not much fighting; but an hour before daylight every morning we had to stand to our arms, strike tents, pack them, and load them on the mules, just the same as if we were going to start on the march. Every morning the same thing, as long as we were in the country.


At Badajos, on our being driven back the second time from the main breach, I had the good fortune to save a gallant officer on the staff of General Sir Manly Powell [Manley Power]. He was lying wounded at the foot of the breach. I volunteered to go back for him, and took him on my back and carried him up the ladder to the end of the glacis, from whence I procured two men and a bearer, and had him taken to the hospital marquee. I had never seen him nor known his name till 1819, when he was A.D.C. to Sir David Baird, the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland; we were then in Dublin, in George Street Barracks; he found me out, and sent for me to the Royal Hospital, the quarters of the C.-in-C.; I then knew that he was Colonel Spottiswode, of the staff. He behaved most generously to me, and settled a small annuity on me till his death, about five or six years ago, since when his honourable brother continues it to me.


I have often had the good fortune to be of service to the present Field Marshal Sir Edward Blakeney, when he was in command of the 7th Fusiliers, and retain his friendship to the present day; he has often declared that I and my two brothers, who served with me in the same corps, were three of the bravest soldiers in the army. My brothers lived through all our campaigning, and were discharged, but are since dead. I am in possession of a letter of thanks from Sir Edward, on my congratulating him on his attaining the highest rank in the British army.


But in all my soldiering we never had the least notion of getting medals, Victoria crosses, or thanks of Parliament; neither had we the assistance of those noble Englishwomen, led on by a Florence Nightingale, to comfort us under wounds or sickness - nothing but downright hard soldiering - aye, and that of the hardest description.


I may here mention that, during my service in the Peninsula, I have been most fortunate as regards wounds, only having received three: the first were two bayonet wounds at Albuera, the next was a gunshot wound at Salamanca, and a few slight touches on other occasions which did not render me a fit subject for the hospital tent.


If I have made any wrong statements as to dates, I humbly beg to be excused, as my memory is not so good or clear as it was some forty years back; but I do believe that the most prominent actions are as near as possible to the time they occurred.


I have now jotted down a few of the most prominent incidents in my military life, and have but to return my most heartfelt and grateful thanks to those noblemen and gentlemen who have so generously and English-like assisted the last days of an old British soldier.


Amongst my kind patrons since my retirement from the service, I am most happy to enumerate the following noblemen and gentlemen, viz.:- The Most noble the Earls of Enniskillen and Erne, for whom I formed and drilled (each) a Yeomanry Corps, for which I received great credit, as can be testified by characters in my possession; and, on my return to my own native Lancashire, I have been most kindly patronised by the following gentlemen, viz.:-


Charles Turner, Esq., M.P. John Torr, Esq., J.P.


Captain Joseph Mayer, C.R.V., F.S.A., to whom I am indebted for many acts of kindness. T. L. Whitehouse, Esq., Branch Bank of England. Colonel Newlands, L.E.V. Major Bousefield, L.R.V. Captain Berry, L.R.V. E. Wilding, Esq.


JOHN HARDY, Late 1st 60th Rifles, (and formerly) 7th British Fusiliers.’


Note: John Hardy’s claim to have been at Waterloo is interesting. He states that he was ‘sent forward with a captain of our regiment’ and would seem to be referring to Captain Digby Mackworth, 7th Foot, who served at Waterloo as aide-de-camp to Lord Hill and most certainly received the Waterloo medal and, later, the M.G.S. too. However, there is no mention of Waterloo in Hardy’s papers and certainly no ‘2 years’ allowance for having been there. Hardy’s name does not appear on the Waterloo medal roll and the following pencil note inside the cover of his printed Statement of Service seems to confirm that Hardy must have provided himself with a medal to wear: ‘I have lost sight of poor old Hardy for some years and never could ascertain what became of him or his medals which when I saw them were battered & showed certain signs of having been much worn.’ This final note appears to be initialled ‘TLW’, possibly the T. L. Whitehouse listed above. An inserted manuscript note, dated 3 March 1859, lists the 14 clasps on Hardy’s medal and also states ‘fought at Almeida, Pombal, Copenhagen 1807, New Orleans, Bayonne [& Waterloo (Medal) - this clearly inserted afterwards], was also at the occupation of Paris.’


Peter Hardy was born in the Parish of Middleton, Manchester, the eldest of the three Hardy brothers, and enlisted into the 7th Fusiliers at Manchester on 28 February 1807, aged 20, for limited service, a labourer by trade. He served 14 years 49 days and was discharged at Edinburgh on 17 April 1821, ‘his second period of service being expired on the 28th Day of February 1821, and at his own request.’ His general conduct as a soldier was described as having been ‘Good, and that he was wounded by a musket ball which passed through the muscles of the back of the neck at the Capture of Martinique 1809. He was again wounded in the left thigh and on the outside of the left leg by musket balls at Albuera in 1811; and at the battle of Salamanca in 1812 a musket ball entered at about the middle of the right arm and passed out at the axilla, & that he has always conducted himself in the most gallant manner in the field.’ Admitted to an out-pension at Manchester on 18 April 1828, he died there on 20 May 1862.


James Hardy was born in the Parish of St John’s, Manchester, and enlisted into the 7th Fusiliers at Manchester on 14 February 1807, aged 19, for unlimited service, a dyer by trade. He was the middle brother in age but the first of the three to enlist. Like his younger brother John, he transferred to the 1st Battalion 60th Rifles, two days after him, on 27 August 1824, and was discharged at Dublin on 26 November 1828. The surgeon’s report stated that ‘Private James Hardy is unfit for the service having chronic rheumatism & difficulty in breathing. His condition also much impaired by hard services.’ He appears to have been admitted to out-pension at Norwich on 6 May 1856.


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