James Graham (British Army soldier)
James Graham | |
---|---|
Born | 1791 County Monaghan, Ireland |
Died | 28 April 1845 (aged 53–54) Royal Hospital, Kilmainham |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | British Army |
Years of service | 1813–1830 |
Rank | Sergeant |
Unit | Coldstream Guards 12th Royal Lancers |
Battles/wars | Bergen op Zoom (1814) Quatre Bras Waterloo |
Awards | specially cast gallantry medal Waterloo Medal recognition as "the bravest man in England" |
James Graham (1791–1845) was an Irish non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, recognised as the "bravest man in the army" by the Duke of Wellington.[1] Serving in the Coldstream Guards, he was commended for his gallantry during the defence of Hougoumont, at Waterloo. Graham saved the life of an officer, and his own brother, and was among the small group responsible for closing the North Gate at Hougoumont after a French attack – an act which won the Duke of Wellington's encomium. He was rewarded with a specially cast gallantry medal and an annuity. After later serving in the 12th Royal Lancers, Graham was discharged in 1830 for ill health, and died at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in 1845.
Early life and service
James Graham was born in 1791,[2] in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland.[3]
One of three brothers to serve in the British Army,[4] Graham enlisted in the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards in 1813,[2] which was then stationed in England. Almost all soldiers at the time signed on for life in exchange for a "bounty" of £23 17s 6d, a large portion of which was absorbed by the cost of outfitting "necessities".[5]
Graham was assigned to the battalion's
The Coldstream Guards were a regiment of
The road to Waterloo
The United Kingdom and her Allies had been at war against
The
Wellington had received news of Napoleon's position on the night of 15 June, and issued orders to his army to hold the ground at Quatre Bras.
Wellington held Quatre Bras, but the Prussians were not so successful at Ligny, and were forced to retreat. Hearing of Blücher's defeat on the morning of 17 June, Wellington ordered his army to withdraw level with his ally; they took position near the Belgian village of Waterloo. Graham's company, and the Scots Guards' light company, masked the retreat from the right, and did not leave Quatre Bras until mid-afternoon.[19]
The field at Waterloo was 5.5 km wide, with two parallel ridges running west to east, creating a shallow valley 1.4 km across.[20] On the allied right lay the chateau of Hougoumont, a collection of walled farm buildings lying closer to the French line than the Allies' line. Recognising its defensive importance, Wellington ordered Hanoverian and Nassau troops to occupy the farm. In allied hands, it would provide cover for flanking fire against any French assault of the main allied line; in French hands, it would provide a bastion from which they could launch attacks.[21] Since it defended the Nivelles road as well as the Allies' right flank, Wellington ordered that it was to be held at all costs.[22]
Hougoumont
The day's battle began on 18 June 1815 at about 11 a.m. with a French attack on Hougoumont from the south-west, led by Napoleon's brother
This was done with the help of three officers (
Wellington monitored the action at Hougoumont until about 1 p.m., by which time he was content enough with the position's security to concentrate his own attention on the allied centre.[29]
With the chateau secure, the 3,500 British and German troops in the vicinity were able to defend the strongpoint against an estimated 14,500 French soldiers. About 8,000 French soldiers died attacking Hougoumont over the day.[14]
During the battle, Graham also saved the life of Captain Wyndham – one of those who had shut the gate – by shooting a sniper whose musket was trained on the officer.[30] Mid-afternoon, a fire broke out in one of the farm buildings following a bombardment of incendiary shells.[31]
Graham's brother Joseph was lying wounded within, and Graham requested permission to fall out, so he might rescue his brother; given permission, he retrieved his brother and returned to his post.[26] Joseph Graham died of wounds five days later.[4]
At 7 p.m. the defenders at Hougoumont were still resisting, despite the burning buildings and their own dwindling ammunition.[32] Within a couple of hours, the action in the rest of the field had resulted in a victory for the Allies: the French were in retreat. Afterwards, Wellington declared that "the success of the battle turned upon closing the gates at Hougoumont." It seems likely that if the gates had not been shut so quickly the men holding the perimeter at Hougoumont would have been killed.[33] It was a costly defence: the Coldstream Guards lost 8 officers, with 300 casualties among the men.[34] James Graham was promoted to sergeant for his bravery at Hougoumont,[4] and received a special medal for gallantry.[14]
"The bravest man at Waterloo"
Wellington's respect for those who served in Hougoumont was well known. After the battle he wrote: "You may depend upon it, no troops could have held Hougoumont but the British, and only the best of them."[35] But among those "best soldiers", Graham stood out as being exceptional. In August 1815, John Norcross, the Rector of Framlingham, sought to make over the income from a freehold farm to the "most deserving soldier at Waterloo"; he approached the Duke of Wellington, who nominated Graham.[36] Graham received an annuity from the farm of £10 a year for two years until the vicar became bankrupt.[2] Wellington's Supplementary Dispatches (Vol. 11) make mention of Graham:
[He] assisted Lieutenant-colonel Macdonnell in closing the gates, which had been left open for the purpose of communication, and which the enemy were in the act of forcing. His brother, a corporal in the regiment, was lying wounded in a barn, which was on fire, and Graham removed him so as to be secure from the fire, and then returned to his duty. He had been 3 2/12 years in the regiment.[2]
This honour is noted in his service record now held at the Public Record Office, with the words: "The most valorous NCO at the battle of Waterloo selected by the Duke of Wellington."[4]
The Reverend Norcross died in 1837.[2] It was reported in a number of books and newspapers in the years following that Norcross had recovered his fortunes enough to leave £500 in his will to "the bravest man in England" and that, once appealed to, Wellington again turned to the events in Hougoumont, selecting Colonel Macdonnell. Macdonnell apparently split the bequest with Graham, since they had shut the gate together.[14][36][37] There remains some doubt concerning this second bequest. Graham's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography records only the initial annuity, and states that "various apparently incorrect versions of the Norcross gift have been published."[2] Archibald Murray (in 1862) made reference to "the alleged sum of £500" given to Colonel Macdonnell and reported investigations made by a fellow researcher who could find no proof of this bequest; Murray concluded that the reports arose from a misrepresentation of the original annuity.[38] In his history of Waterloo, Colonel Siborne provided a full account of Graham's action at Hougoumont and the later annuity, but made no reference to the second bequest, despite reporting Graham's own death at Kilmainham Hospital.[30] Siborne had personally interviewed Graham.[39]
Later career
Graham continued to serve in the Coldstream Guards after Waterloo. The 2nd Battalion advanced on Paris with the army, remaining there until 1816 as part of the army of occupation, after which they were posted to
James Graham died in 1845, at the
His obituary appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine under the name "John Graham":
23 April. At the Royal Hospital of Kilmainham, Sergeant John Graham, formerly in the light company of the 2nd battalion of Coldstream Guards, the individual selected by the Duke of Wellington as "the bravest of the brave" in the desperate combat at Waterloo, in order to profit by the generous offer of the Rev. Mr. Norcross, Rector of Framlingham, to confer a pension, during life, upon the soldier most distinguished in the brigade of guards on that glorious day. After the most minute inquiry, carried out by Sir John Byng's directions, the laurel was awarded to an Irishman, John Graham, a native of Cloona [sic], co. Monaghan.[6]
Enduring legacy
James Graham's exploits at Waterloo became much celebrated throughout Great Britain, and many accounts of the battle make reference to his actions, including a biography of Wellington,
The actions of Graham and Macdonnell continue to be remembered as an iconic moment in the battle of Waterloo. In 1915, cigarette manufacturers W.D. & H.O. Wills portrayed Graham and Macdonnell on one of the cigarette cards printed to commemorate the centenary of Waterloo.[45] Since then, many authors of fiction concerning Waterloo have recreated the events at the gate, and even if they include their own fictional heroes they attribute the closing of the gate to Macdonnell and Graham.[46]
The efforts of the Coldstream Guards at Waterloo, and Graham's gallantry, remain celebrated by the Regiment. Every December the
"In Memory of Sergeant James Graham WM, 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, "The Bravest Man in England", Following His Actions in Closing The Gates at Hougoumont Farm, Waterloo, 18 June 1815."[49]
Notes
- ^ "Coldstream Guards Tribute". Archived from the original on 29 July 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Chichester, DNB
- ^ National Archive WO 97/55/27
- ^ a b c d e f Waterloo Battlefield Tours: Corporal James Graham[dead link]
- ^ Haythornthwaite, p. 7
- ^ a b The Gentleman's Magazine v.179 1845 Jul–Dec, p. 101
- ^ Haythornthwaite, p. 6
- ^ a b Fletcher & Younghusband, p. 13
- ^ Glover, p. 312
- ^ Glover, p. 326
- ^ Nofi, p. 13
- ^ Nofi, pp. 19, 28
- ^ Nofi, p. 31
- ^ a b c d British Army: History of the Coldstream Guards Archived 13 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ MacKinnon, p. 210
- ^ MacKinnon, p. 211
- ^ Nofi, p. 117
- ^ Nofi, p. 119
- ^ MacKinnon, p. 212
- ^ Nofi, p. 179
- ^ Nofi, p. 181
- ^ Roberts, p. 49
- ^ Nofi, pp. 193–5
- ^ a b c Nofi, p. 198
- ^ Howarth, p. 79
- ^ a b Creasy, p. 363
- ^ British Battles: Waterloo
- ^ Howarth, p. 80
- ^ Nofi, p. 199
- ^ a b c Siborne, p. 239
- ^ Nofi, p. 212
- ^ Nofi, p. 244
- ^ a b Roberts, p. 58
- ^ a b Grant & Roffe, p. 20
- ^ Bryant, p. 242
- ^ a b Booth, p. 86
- ^ Murray, p. 71
- ^ Murray, pp. 72–3
- ^ Siborne, p. xv
- ^ "regiments.org". Archived from the original on 20 February 2007. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ The Daily News, The people's life of the duke of Wellington, 1852, pp. 79, 93 online version
- ^ Sergeant E. Cotton, A Voice from Waterloo a History of the Battle Fought on 18 June 1815, p. 51 online version
- ^ Charles Dickens, Household Words: A Weekly Journal, 1851, p. 542
- ^ RLS: "Closing the Gates at Hougoumont, 1815"
- ^ British Empire: Cigarette cards
- An Infamous Army, 1937 (republished London: Arrow Books, 2004, pp. 336–338); Iain Gale's Four Days in June, (London: HarperCollins, 2006, pp. 218–18, 289); Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Waterloo, (UK: HarperCollins, 1990, pp. 285-9)
- ^ Waterloo: Coldstream Guards website Archived 9 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Hanging the Brick: Coldstream Guards". Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2008.
- ^ Coldstream Guards: LILLE BARRACKS – BLOCK OPENINGS Archived 12 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Booth, John; The Battle of Waterloo: With Those of Ligny and Quatre Bras, L Booth, 1852, available online
- Bryant, Arthur; The Age of Elegance: 1812–1822, London: Collins, 1950
- Chichester, H.M.; "Graham, James (1791–1845)", (rev. James Lunt), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- ISBN 1-4191-6215-2, excerpts available online
- Fletcher, Ian; Younghusband, William; Wellington's Foot Guards, 1994, UK: Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-392-3
- ISBN 0-85368-890-7
- Glover, Michael; The Peninsular War 1807–1814: A Concise Military History, 1974, UK: David & Charles, ISBN 0-7153-6387-5
- Grant, Charles; Roffe, Michael; The Coldstream Guards, 1971, UK: Osprey Publishing, ISBN 0-85045-057-8
- Howarth, David; Waterloo: Day of Battle, 1968, New York: Galahad Books (Published in the UK as A Near Run Thing: The Day of Waterloo)
- MacKinnon, Daniel; Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards,Vol. II, 1833, UK; R Bentley, available online
- Murray, Archibald; History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army, 1862, available online
- ISBN 0-938289-98-5
- ISBN 0-00-719075-1
- ISBN 1-4021-7153-6, excerpts available online
External links
- Coldstream Guards
- Waterloo Battlefield Tours: Corporal James Graham[dead link]
- Sergeant James Graham portrait