Waterloo medal to C/Sgt J Badderley and Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal to son J. Badderly

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The fascinating and rare confirmed Battle of Waterloo 18th June 1815 Chateau of Hougoumont “main building” Defender and son’s 1846 dated Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal pair. The…
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The fascinating and rare confirmed Battle of Waterloo 18th June 1815 Chateau of Hougoumont “main building” Defender and son’s 1846 dated Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal pair. The father, Sergeant James Badderly, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards – the Scots Guards, came from Nottingham, and saw service in the army between December 1805 and August 1826. As a member of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home’s Light Company, he found himself defending from within the walls of the main building of the Chateau of Hougoumont at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815, having previous to this been present in the siege of Bergen-Op-Zoom during 1814. Home’s Light Company, of which Badderly was one of six Sergeants, famously advanced up to the main north gate at Hougoumont, where it faced a French assault before being pushed inside the gates, which were then famously forced shut in the face of a determined attack by elements of the 1st Legere Battalion, led by a giant of a man, Sous Lieutenant Legros, known as L’Enfonceur, or ‘the smasher’. Those French who managed to get inside were eventually all killed, but this action was immortalised by the Scottish artist, Robert Gibb, when he painted ‘Closing the gates at Hougoumont’, which is now displayed in the National Gallery of Scotland. This image depicts the men of Colonel MacDonnell’s Coldstream Guards and of Colonel Home’s Scots Guards closing the gates, in the face of L’Enfonceur waiving his pioneers axe. The men of Home’s Company now found themselves defending the main part of Hougoumont in the face of continued French attacks, harassing musket fire, artillery and specifically howitzers that were employed to fire the farm complex with ‘carcase’ projectiles. As a result the chateau slowly burned down around them, but was never taken. His son, who joined up in January 1825 and served through to July 1846, would briefly serve alongside his father in the 3rd Foot Guards, which from 1831 was known as the Scots Fusiliers Guards, now the Scots Guards. He rose to Colour Sergeant and received his Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1846, before going on to work as the master of the Union Workhouse in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, and as a receiving officer for workshouses in Rochford, Essex.

Father: Waterloo Medal 1815, fitted with modified German silver straight bar suspension; (SERJ. JAMES BADDERLY, 2ND. BATT. 3RD REG. GUARDS.)

Son: Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Queen Victoria 1st type without Hanoverian arms (1847-1855) with dated edge, and fitted with silver clip and modified early form silver straight bar suspension; (J. BADDERLY, COLOR SERJT. SCOTS. FUSL. GUARDS. 1846.)

Condition: slight contact wear, specifically to first, overall about Good Very Fine.

Sergeant James Badderly, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards – the Scots Guards, who is a confirmed member of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home’s Light Company which assisted in the defence of the main building at the Chateau of Hougoumont on 18th June 1815.

James Badderly, surname also spelt Badderley, was born in 1786 in the parish of St. Mary’s, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, and was working as a frame work knitter, when he enlisted into the British Army at Nottingham on 25th December 1805, joining as a Private the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards – the Scots Guards. He went on to serve for the next 22 years and 233 days with the Colours, two years being added for service at the Battle of Waterloo.

Badderly met and married one Charlotte Arnold at Nottingham on 24th March 1806. They had a son, also named James, who was born on 19th October 1806, and was baptised in Westminster, London, on 25th January 1807.

For the first 2 years and 233 days Badderly remained a Private, before being promote to Corporal in 1808, and then after a further 4 years 124 days service, he received his promotion to Sergeant in 1813. On his enlisting, Badderly found himself posted to the 2nd Battalion, which was then stationed in London. In July 1809 the light companies of his battalion were posted to Holland during the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition, which saw numerous men contract fever. There is no evidence to suggest with his surviving service records that Badderly participated in this expedition, nor that was a member of the three companies of his battalion who fought with General Sir Thomas Graham with the forces at Cadiz in southern Spain from August 1810 onwards, and who then fought at the Battle of Barrosa in March 1811, and it is assumed that throughout this time he remained on home service. The main body of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, would remain in London until November 1813, when then the moved to Greenwich and on to Ramsgate before being sent to Holland, and with the Napoleonic Wars coming to an end, then found themselves stationed at Steenbergen from February 1814 and took part in the Siege of Bergen-Op-Zoom. From August of that year the battalion was stationed at Brussels.

They were still there as of March 1815, and with Napoleon’s escape from Elba, then formed part of the forces under Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington when he engaged the French at the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16th June, and the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815. At this stage, Badderly was serving as a Sergeant in Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home’s Company, which having been present at Quatre Bras, was then one of the light companies tasked with the defence of Hougoumont.

During the campaign, the Guards were organised in two brigades in the 1st Division. The 1st Brigade was made up of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 1st Guards, and the 2nd Brigade consisted of Coldstreamers and Scots Guards.

It was on the evening of the Duchess of Richmond’s ball, 15th June, that Wellington discovered that Napoleon had ‘humbugged’ him. The army had to be mobilised that night so nobody had much sleep. The Guards were camped at Enghien and received the order at 0130 hrs. They marched out at 0400 and were force-marched all day in hot weather, and the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards only arrived towards the very end of the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16th June 1815.

The next day, 17th June, the allies retained control of Quatre Bras but Blucher’s Prussians had been hit hard at Ligny and forced to withdraw. The following day was spent withdrawing to Mont St Jean. There was a cavalry battle at Genappe but the Foot Guards were not involved. The heavy rain started at midday and continued through the night. The Light Companies of both Guards Brigades, under Lord Saltoun, were ordered to secure the Chateau of Hougoumont while the rest of the Guards took up positions behind Hougoumont.

The chateau and its associated staff residencies and numerous agricultural barns and stables, formed a figure of eight shape, surrounding two distinct courtyards. With high stone walls connecting all of the buildings and surrounding the large formal gardens on its southern and eastern boundaries and its northern edge protected by a thick hedge and a sunken track or hollow way, it formed a very strong defensive position. Only four gates allowed ingress to the farm complex, restricting any attacker to assaulting one or more of these points of access. The south (or upper) gate, formed from two great wood panelled doors, secured by a wooden bar, gave access for carriages and carts into the southern (or upper) courtyard through a high archway built underneath the gardener’s house. Another large pair of wood panelled gates secured by a heavy wooden beam was to be found in the high north wall giving similar access for wheeled transport into the much larger northern (or lower) courtyard, which should be viewed as the farmyard. Within this yard was a brick draw-well topped with an ornate pigeon coop. The location of Hougoumont is in low lying ground and then being fronted on its south side by an extensive wood further improved its defensive capabilities. A small arched doorway led from the southern courtyard into the walled formal garden and was thus safe from assault as long as the garden wall was held. Lastly, but very significantly, there was a fourth point of access via a single wooden door in the west wall, which allowed pedestrian access from the lane and adjoining kitchen gardens running down that side of the complex into a barn, from which there was direct access to the southern courtyard. Outside of this walled enclosure, to the east, stood a large orchard bordered by thick, almost impenetrable hedges and to the south, a large wood which completely restricted the view of the chateau complex from that direction making aimed artillery fire impossible from the main French position. The wood ended a full thirty yards from the walls of the formal garden, leaving a corridor of open ground which was to become a veritable killing ground during the battle.

Around 6 p.m. on the evening of 17th June, as the last remnants of the army arrived into Wellington’s chosen position in front of Mont St. Jean after its retreat from Quatre Bras, General Cooke, commanding the 1st Division, consisting of the four Guards battalions, was ordered to send the light companies from each of these battalions to occupy the chateau and its environs and prepare it for defence. On arrival at the complex at about 7 p.m. the four companies of Guards under the overall command of Colonel Macdonell, found a few French infantry and cavalry investigating the complex, most likely with a view to plunder rather than occupancy, and were easily chased off. The farmer had already fled but the Guards did find the gardener, one Guillaume van Cutsem, although his subsequent claims to have remained during much of the battle and survived unscathed appear doubtful.

The two light companies of the 2nd Brigade under Lieutenant Colonel James Macdonell occupied the farm complex and walled garden and the light companies of the 1st Brigade under Lord Saltoun occupied the orchard and wood.

Low firing steps were prepared of stone or wood to allow the defenders to raise themselves over the six foot high wall to fire whilst being able to step down into cover when vulnerable as they reloaded, loopholes were gouged out of the wall which further increased the density of fire and stockpiles of ammunition were arranged in the gardener’s house. The southern gate was barricaded internally with heavy logs and any handy farm implements and other paraphernalia; the north gate was left free to allow access for reinforcements and re-supply, for ease of communication with the troops on the ridge behind and almost certainly as an escape route if things should go wrong.

On the morning of the 18 June, the Prince of Orange decided to reinforce the Hougoumont area before the fighting commenced. Count Kielmansegge supplied the 1st company of the Hanoverian Field Jagers (sharpshooters) of one hundred men and one hundred rifle armed men from each of the Luneburg and Grubenhagen Hanoverian battalions, these three hundred men were all pushed into the orchard. With such a sizeable reinforcement, Saltoun was ordered to return to the ridge with his two light companies. On route, Saltoun met Wellington who was not aware of his withdrawal and ordered him to halt where he was, however hearing nothing further, he eventually continued to rejoin his brigade.

Wellington proceeded to inspect the defences of Hougoumont, ordering the light company of the Coldstream and 3rd Guards to the west of the farm covering the haystack and lane; and ordering the Nassau and Hanoverian troops into the wood. At 9 a.m. the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Nassau Regiment commanded by Major Büsgen, totalling 800 men in six companies, had been ordered from the extreme left wing of the army over to Hougoumont. It took some time to march across the face of the whole army and on arrival just after 10 a.m. Büsgen placed three companies, totalling four hundred men, in the orchard and three companies within the farm complex, which he found empty but prepared for defence, the light companies of the Coldstream and 3rd Guards having previously moved into the western lane area. The Grenadier company of the Nassau battalion occupied the gardener’s house and guarded the south gate, planting their colour defiantly on the rooftop, the other two companies lined the garden wall. Part of the light company of the Coldstream Guards continued to hold the buildings of the lower courtyard and defended the north gate.

The first shot of the Battle of Waterloo was fired precisely at 11.30 am by the British. It was from the guns in front of the right of the centre line, and was directed against a large column of the enemy which had formed at the distance of about 1,200 yards and was advancing against Hougoumont. There were 15 guns, 9 pounders on that spot and the effect from them even at that distance was tremendous. Large openings were instantly formed in the column into which almost every shot fell, and before the guns could be re-laid it had halted and retired under a rising ground for shelter, thus breaking the order of this first attack.

And so, as the first cannon bellowed out the commencement of the battle at around half past eleven, Napoleon’s very first action was to order his brother, Lieutenant General Prince Jerome to take the complex with his 6th Infantry Division totalling just over five and a half thousand men. It was apparently intended as a diversion, but this was soon to be no mere feint. Whether on his own decision or following orders from Napoleon is unclear, but the attack was continued with great vigour. Jerome has been much criticised by history as the scapegoat for his decision to press the attacks, but it should be noted that his superior, General Reille, although he later claimed that he ordered him to desist in the attacks, did not stop him, in fact he actually fed the rest of his troops into the later assaults.

At this moment, Badderly’s company commander, in an account compiled in 1817, would write that: “Lord Wellington observed me say our guns [were] so well served, [replied] ‘Very pretty practice indeed’. Home continues: ‘It was above a quarter of an hour after this before the French had reformed their columns and brought up above 30 pieces of artillery against ours. The effect from them was for a long time of no consequence against our guns and front line; they had not gotten [sic] our range and firing rather high, their shot flew over us and where they got pretty near our elevation and although our troops were well sheltered the cannonade did considerable devastation.

The troops had occupied Hougoumont on the evening of the 17th. In the night there was an alarm, the light companies of the 2nd Guard Brigade under Colonel MacDonnell were sent down there, they were reinforced by the two companies of the 1st Brigade under Lord Saltoun who occupied the orchard. About eleven o’clock a battalion of the Nassau troops was sent down as a reinforcement to Colonel MacDonnell, these at first might be about 600 strong but after the first hour there was not one of them to be seen; they had all vanished.”

This first attack commenced with a cloud of French skirmishers driving into the wood, supported by the formed infantry of Bauduin’s Brigade and flanked by Pire’s cavalry to the west, which slowly forced the Nassau and Hanoverian troops back, until finally pushing them out of the wood into the orchard and then pursuing them through the orchard to the hollow way on its northern boundary. At this point, some of the three Nassau companies appear to have routed and left the field.

Hone continues: “Other reinforcements were at intervals sent down from Sir John Byng’s Brigade until at last the whole of the 3rd Regiment and eight companies of the Coldstream were employed in or near to Hougoumont. The whole force employed there at any on time never exceeded 1,200 men.”

The French continued to make an assault on the garden but were mown down by the heavy fire from the wall each time they attempted to cross the thirty yards of the killing ground between the wood and the garden wall. Some survived to reach the relative safety of the wall and desperately tried to wrench the muskets from the defenders as they poked them through the loopholes to fire, often gashing their hands on their bayonets. Others sought the aid of colleagues to raise them up and over the wall, only to receive a musket ball at point blank range or a sharp stab from a bayonet, but none crossed the wall alive. Even their commander Bauduin was killed in the fierce fighting in the wood.

Some brave individuals attempted to force the southern gate, a few of whom may apparently have succeeded; and as the Nassau troops were never in the northern courtyard it may have been at this moment that poor Lieutenant Diederich von Wilder of the Nassau Grenadiers was chased by a Frenchman towards the farmer’s house. As he grasped the door to enter, the Frenchman struck a blow with his axe that severed his hand completely. These few Frenchmen were however quickly shot or bayoneted by Sergeant Buchsieb and his men and the door re-barricaded. Following this close call the battalion’s standard was removed from the rooftop and Buchsieb was ordered to take the colours to safety behind the ridge. At the Hollow Way, the remaining Hanoverian troops were reinforced by Saltoun’s two Guard light companies which had been sent forward again. Together they drove the now disordered French out of the orchard, pushing them back into the wood and then proceeded to set up a defensive line at the hedge line on the edge of the orchard. During their advance the French had also suffered severely from well directed cannon fire from the ridge behind Hougoumont, and particularly after Sir Augustus Frazer had directed Major Bull’s battery of 5½ inch howitzers to throw shrapnel shells into the woods, which the gunners did with great skill causing very heavy losses.

Prince Jerome was not so easily thwarted, however, and he immediately ordered his 2nd Brigade commanded by Soye to join a second assault on Hougoumont. This time Bauduin’s Brigade would attack to the west, supported again by Pire’s cavalry, whilst Soye moved through the wood to renew the attack on the orchard and garden wall.

Home continues: “The French having reformed their troops came down to the attack forming what is called a double shield of sharp shooters. They got possession of the wood but were chased out by an attack and charge by the light companies under Colonel MacDonnell. In this many officers were wounded; then the Nassau troops gave way and were never seen afterwards excepting a few stragglers.”

A third major attack was launched by Jerome just before one p.m. which was now sent to probe the south east side of the orchard. The obvious danger of this attack, was that the capture of the hollow way would both isolate Hougoumont from the main ridge and allow the French to fire into the formal garden from the rear hedge (there was no wall here) and probably force the defenders to abandon the garden, increasing the isolation and vulnerability of the defenders of the farm complex.

This attack was made by Foy’s Division from Reille’s Corps, led by Gautier’s Brigade and proceeded through and alongside the eastern edge of the orchard, driving Saltoun and the Hanoverians back slowly. In the nick of time two companies of the 3rd Foot Guards commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home were sent to reinforce Saltoun and together, with the support of fire from the Coldstream Guards lining the eastern wall of the garden, the French were once again expelled from the orchard with heavy losses.

Colonel Home’s company, including Sergeant Badderly, had advanced down through the Orchard and arrived outside the main building of Hougoumont. The light company of the 3rd Guards and part of the Coldstream light infantry totalling around one hundred and fifty men were now outside the farm complex on the western side and were to bear the brunt of this assault, being driven slowly back along the western face of Hougoumont.

At the north gate, the Guards under Colonel Home’ command looked to retreat into the northern courtyard, but the leading elements of 1st Legere Regiment were hot on their heels. Sergeant Ralph Fraser armed only with a pike fought with Colonel Cubiѐres, commander of 1st Legere, dragging him from his horse, when the sergeant leapt onto the horse and rode through the north gate; Colonel Cubiѐres was wounded, but survived.

Home’s men now went about providing much needed reinforcement for Colonel MacDonnell’s troops.

Home continues in his 1817 account: “The French at last compelled our light troop to return into the house, and they followed so close that some got into the courtyard and some killed there. Many were killed at the gate and about it. Nothing had been done by our engineers to put this point into a state of defence. It formed the most important point in that day’s position and yet at eleven o’clock there was not a single loop hole made in the garden wall; at no time was half the advantage taken of it which might have been done. It possessed great capabilities but the defence of that point was no ways indicated to our engineers; a few picks and irons of the pioneers formed all the tools. With these a few loop holes were made and the gate reinforced, and this formed all the additional defence of the place. The troops did the rest. It possessed some important advantages for defence, it could not easily be touched by cannon etc, the wood protected it in front and on its right flank they could not bring guns to bear on it without coming close to the edge of the ridge and exposing themselves to our artillery. This in a great degree saved it.”

Private Matthew Clay, of the 3rd Guards is an important eye witness to the fight for Hougoumont. He was only twenty years old and new to war when he found himself fighting only feet away from the French outside Hougoumont, whilst the north gates were fought over. The advanced elements of 1st Legere reached the gates finding them apparently closed, but it appears that the cross beam had not been put in place properly; at their head was a giant of a man, Sous Lieutenant Legros, known as L’Enfonceur, or ‘the smasher’. He seized a pioneer’s axe and swinging it against the panels of the gate, forced his way into the farmyard. A large number of French infantry followed him into the courtyard through the narrow gap, forcing the defenders to engage in a desperate hand to hand combat, whilst others retired to the relative safety of the surrounding buildings and commenced firing on the assailants from the windows and doorways. The fall of Hougoumont was resting on a knife edge when Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Macdonell ran forward, gathered a small group of officers and men to him. Together they fought their way to the gate and with the aid of Corporal James Graham, pushed the gate closed, despite the continued efforts of more French infantry to enter. The gates were secured and barricaded, Macdonell eventually securing the gates properly by dropping the great crossbar into place. All of the French infantry who had entered the courtyard were killed, including Legros.

The present threat to the farm eased as the French infantry retired slowly to the south in the face of a determined counter attack ordered by Major General Byng who had sent three companies of the Coldstream Guards , led by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Woodford, down from the ridge and driving the French troops slowly back down the western lane into the wood. The reinforcement then filed into the farm complex via the small west door and greatly boosted the number of defenders within. Woodford was actually senior to Macdonell, but he generously agreed for Macdonell to retain the command and they fought the battle together for the remainder of the day. Now all but two companies of the Coldstream Guards, which remained upon the ridge with the colours, were engaged in the defence of Hougoumont. Most of these much needed reinforcements were positioned along the east wall of the garden where they could support the infantry defending the orchard, but some also relieved part of the Nassau Grenadiers in the defence of the gardener’s house, these then joined their colleagues lining the south wall of the garden. This also allowed the north gate to be reopened for re-supply and to allow the walking wounded to retire, it was also the opportunity for Private Matthew Clay and his colleague, who had been trapped outside, to enter the relative safety of the farm complex, where he was soon put to work defending the chateau itself.

Following such intense fighting, concern was now raised over the dwindling ammunition supplies, as most of that previously stockpiled had now been issued. Ensign Berkeley Drummond, Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion 3rd Foot Guards, informed Captain Horace Seymour, Aide de Camp to Lord Uxbridge, that there was a great need for musket ammunition. Seymour rode back and soon discovered a private of the Wagon Train in charge of an ammunition cart. Without hesitation, despite the heavy musketry fire from French skirmishers in the lane, the private hastily drove his wagon forward and successfully delivered the vital ammunition.

Although there were significant intervals between some of the major attacks, the defenders were given no opportunity to relax, for French skirmishers never ceased firing upon any perceivable movement, making the archway between the southern courtyard and the formal garden particularly dangerous. Although the farm was largely hidden from view from the south by the wood, it was clearly in the view of the artillery attached to Pire’s cavalry to the west on the Nivelles road and was regularly fired upon with solid iron cannon balls in an attempt to breach the walls. A number did smash through the walls or roofs, but luckily for the defenders many of the smaller calibre rounds bounced off the solid masonry, the walls withstanding much of the heavy battering.

In Home’s 1817 account he would recall: “Many common shot and grape fell in my direction and perforated the walls in every part, but these reasons prevented it from being steady or effective. About half past one some shot or shells falling amid the stables of the chateau set them and the straw bales on fire, it burst out in an instant in every quarter with an amazing flame and smoke. The confusion at the time was great and many men burned to death or suffocated by the smoke.”

The Duke of Wellington was at this moment in considerable anxiety. He sent Lt. Colonel Hamilton then aide de camp to Sir E. Barnes to the chateau with orders to keep it to the last and if that could not be done from the fire as to occupy the strong ground on the right and rear and defend it to extremity. Colonel Hamilton delivered these orders to me and added these words ‘Colonel Home the Duke considers the defence [of] this post of the last consequence to the success of the operations of the day; do you perfectly understand these orders?’

I said ‘Perfectly, and you my assure the Duke from me that his orders shall be punctually obeyed.’”

Another account details that Home replied in relation to the question of whether he understood his orders: “I do and you can tell the Duke from me that unless we are attacked more vigorously that we have been hitherto, we shall maintain the position without difficulty.’

The fire was gradually extinguished. The French then dragged a howitzer forward which began to shell the buildings of Hougoumont from a position in the north east corner of the wood. Saltoun realised that this new threat was very serious and sought to silence it. He attempted to advance into the woods with most of his available force, but soon realised that he was heavily outnumbered and was forced to retire with loss and actually fell back as far as the hollow way. Around this period, Byng took command of the 2nd Division, Cooke having been wounded, giving Colonel Francis Hepburn command of 2nd Guards Brigade and therefore responsibility for the defence of Hougoumont..

Saltoun’s light infantry companies were now badly depleted and so completely exhausted that they were relieved by three more companies of 3rd Foot Guards under Colonel Francis Hepburn who then assumed command of the orchard for the remainder of the day.

Home continues in his account. “It was about half past two that Colonel Hepburn arrived with the fresh troops, and things got again into good order…”

Just before 3 p.m. another large body of troops had been seen advancing from near La Belle Alliance. The division of General Bachelu, had moved down the track which still exists, apparently making their way towards Hougoumont but concentrated artillery fire from the allied ridge appears to have caused such heavy casualties that this movement was halted and the assault to be abandoned before the infantry actually became engaged; although an order to desist is also possible.

Home continues: “and after that no very violent attack was made upon this post but only a sharp firing kept upon it by light troops until about 6 in the evening when an attack being made along our whole line the enemy turned the left of the orchard and [pushed?] the troops there back upon our right. Things did not remain long in this situation and a general advance from our line won the day and freed the troops in Hougoumont from the fate which they would have met with from the enemy.”

After Hepburn’s men were advanced forward, back in the main British line, other units had been moved up to fill the position previously held by the 2nd Guards Brigade on the ridge and the 1st Brigade of the King’s German Legion was brought onto the front slope in rear of the orchard at Hougoumont to support the troops within.

The French artillery now changed their tactics and a number of howitzers were employed to fire the farm complex with ‘carcase’ projectiles. Soon the success of this new tactic was self evident as the roofs of the great barn and the chateau were clearly aflame. Many of the wounded had been collected in the great barn and although some were rescued by brave individuals who battled the intense heat and flame (including Corporal James Graham of ‘closing the gate’ fame, who saved his wounded brother here), many more were consumed by the inferno.

Wellington saw the fires and sent advice, written in pencil on a slip of ass skin stating ‘I see that the fire has communicated from the hay stack to the roof of the chateau. You must however still keep your men in those parts to which the fire does not reach. Take care that no men are lost by the falling in of the roof, or floors. After they have fallen in occupy the walls inside of the garden; particularly if it should be possible for the enemy to pass through the embers in the inside of the house’.

At this point the defenders would be struggling with the intense heat from the searing flames, choked by thick acrid smoke, beset by the screams of the wounded and neighing of frenzied horses caught in the burning buildings, and stung continually by the incessant crashing of shells and rattle of musketry all around, and yet they fought on.

Private Matthew Clay had been posted in the top room of the chateau and was all too aware of the flames spreading across the main roof below his position. Ensign Gooch stood across the doorway with sword drawn forbidding any one to leave until the position was truly untenable; eventually, fearing that the floor was going to give way at any moment, Gooch released them and in their rapid descent several of the men injured themselves. Clay found his way out of the chateau, no doubt relieved to be safe from the inferno, only to discover himself facing French infantry within the southern courtyard! The west door had been forced and at least a dozen Frenchmen had entered the barn and found their way into the courtyard. Fierce close combat had broken out between the Nassau and French troops and the fortuitous arrival of the Guardsmen from the burning chateau provided a most useful reinforcement. Some of the French infantrymen managed to retire via the same door with seven Nassau prisoners before it was sealed again, however those trapped within the yard were finished off and few captured, Clay claims that only a lone French drummer boy was saved.

The flames were to eventually consume almost every building in the complex except the gardener’s house on the southern face. However, in what appeared to many as miraculous intervention, the small chapel, although attached to the chateau, did not burn and even though the flames licked through the chapel doorway and charred the feet of the huge wooden crucifix affixed just inside above the doorway, the flames never took further hold and the chapel was preserved.

Clay was now posted in the archway of the southern gate which he says was blown open by a cannonball but then closed and secured before any French infantry could react to this opportunity. Later he was moved upstairs into the gardener’s house, which he found in ruins from the intense cannonade from the direction of the Nivelles road.

Home would recalled in his 1817 account: “Early in the day the house itself by some means had been set on fire at the roof and the burning embers falling on the floors would soon have communicated to the whole building. In order to prevent this I ordered Major Drummond to place some men in the garret and others to supply them constantly with water which checked the flames until the day was won the object being attained the fire was allowed to take its course and by dark had burned out and furnished a splendid illumination for the victory.

It was at about 6 p.m that the French made one final attempt on Hougoumont. The allied ridge was now under sustained cavalry attacks; to support this assault and to further prevent the Hougoumont garrison from injuring the flanks of the advancing cavalry with heavy musketry fire, a further assault was also launched upon Hougoumont. Bachelu’s Division, supported by two regiments from Foy’s Division drove into the orchard from the south east and rapidly overpowered the defenders, forcing them back to the hollow way. But here again, under intense fire from the hollow and on their left flank by the Coldstream Guards lining the eastern wall of the garden, the attack stalled and was then forced to retire with very heavy losses and the orchard was recovered.

A little later, another major assault was made by Foy’s Division from the same direction, whilst Jerome made another assault on the farm buildings. Exactly the same sequence of events was played out in the orchard, with the allies initially being forced back to the hollow way and then the French assault being destroyed in the crossfire from the troops in front and those lining the garden wall on their flank, the inevitable outcome was a French withdrawal and the allied troops repossessing the orchard. The attacks upon the farm complex were now noticeably more circumspect and half hearted and the defenders rested uncomfortably, suspecting that at any moment another fierce attack was yet to come.

In the immediate aftermath of the action, Home would recall that: “in the house we housed the ladies of several of the officers who had been killed there, which I had forbidden to have removed, thinking there could not be a nobler tomb for them than the walls which their courage had helped to defend.” The stubborn defence of Hougoumont had exhausted the strength of no less than thirteen thousand French troops of Reille’s Corps, and played a major part in Wellington’s ultimate victory.

Colonel Home would also recall in 1817 that: “During the day I saw no peasant in or near the house and do not believe that there was anyone near it much less in the house, this is all an invention. The only living things about were a few stored calves which were killed I suppose by the men in the afternoon they had disappeared and a flight of pigeons which in the evening returned to their house which stood in the middle of the court and which had escaped the fire and this in spite of the firing and the burning materials all around went quietly to roost. These furnished an excellent supper roasted on ramrods over the burning rafters to several of the officers this being the first food some of them had tasted for two days.”

In 1903, the Scottish artist, Robert Gibb, painted the now famous painting ‘Closing the gates at Hougoumont’, which is now displayed in the National Gallery of Scotland. This image, albeit done 88 years after the battle, remains one of the most famous paintings of the Battle of Waterloo, and it depicts around 30 French soldiers attempting to force the north gate and enter into the grounds of chateau of Hougoumont. The gates are being forced open, and are being pushed inwards. The British troops shown to be pushing the gates closed from the other side are the men of Colonel MacDonnell’s Coldstream Guards and the men of Colonel Home’s Scots Guards.

As a Sergeant in Colonel Home’s company, Badderly would have been present in the vital defence of the main building of the chateau of Hougoumont during the afternoon of 18th June 1815, and whereas it is more common to see one of the Hougoumont orchard defenders, to have a confirmed defender is a rarity.

Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home’s Light Company, had as its officers, Home as the Company Captain, and three Company Lieutenants: Captain Robert Bamford Hesketh, Captain Henry Hawkins, and Captain Charles John Bennett. For the other ranks it had an effective strength of 6 Sergeants, 8 Corporals, 1 Drummer, and 86 Privates. Badderly is one of the six Sergeant’s listed by name.

Badderly had remarkably survived Waterloo unscathed, and would then have been with his battalion when it marched to Paris as part of the Army of Occupation. It returned home in January 1816.

Badderly was eventually discharged ‘worn out’ from service on 14th August 1826, he having served in all 20 years and 233 days with the Colours, with a further two years added for his having been present at Waterloo.

Badderly was admitted as an Out-Pensioner to the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 11th October 1826, and was residing at the Court House in Marylebone Lane, Marylebone, London, when he died aged 64 on 8th May 1848. He may well have been employed as a gaoler at the time of his death.

Colour Sergeant James Badderly, Scots Fusilier Guards, and previously 59th Nottinghamshire Regiment of Foot, who was the son of the Hougoumont Defender, Sergeant James Badderly, 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards – the Scots Guards. He briefly saw service alongside his father in a military career spanning January 1826 to July 1846, being in the latter year awarded the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. He later worked as the master of the Union Workhouse in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and as a relieving officer evaluating people for admittance to workhouses in Rochford, Essex.

Baddely’s son, also called James Badderly, and surname sometimes shown in the records as Badderley, was born on 19th October 1806, and was baptised in Westminster, London, on 25th January 1807. He then moved up to Nottingham, where his parents had come from, and found work as a cord-wainer. However he then opted to follow in his fathers footsteps, and enlisted into the British Army on 8th January 1825, joining initially as a Private the 59th Nottinghamshire Regiment of Foot, he then transferred across to his fathers regiment, the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards – the Scots Guards on 24th March 1825 as a Private (No.749), and for a brief period would have seen service alongside his father.

He was promoted to Corporal on 28th January 1827. On 8th December 1829 he married one Ann Tucker in Christ Church, Marylebone, London, with whom he had a son, Henry Badderly. The marriage had been witnessed by both of his parents, James and Charlotte. In 1831, following the accession of King William IV, the regiment was renamed the Scots Fusilier Guards, and Badderly was promoted to Sergeant on 6th April 1833.

Badderly would see home service throughout his career, and was discharged at his own request to pension as a Colour Sergeant on 14th July 1846. At the time of his discharge he was noted as a very good and efficient non commission officer and soldier, who had been seldom in hospital, and was described as trustworthy and sober. He was awarded a pension of 1 shilling and 8d per day. It that same year he was awarded the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with Gratuity. He was admitted as an Out-Pensioner to the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

On his discharge, his intention had been to reside in Berkhamsted, and by 1851 was still there and working as the master of the Union Workhouse, residing at 92 High Street in Berkhamsted. By 1861 he was shown as living at 82 North Street in Rochford, Essex, and working as a relieving officer, being employed to evaluate the cases of people applying for relief, and to allocate funds or authorise entry to the workhouse. He died in Rochford in September 1866.

Some 100 years later in 1966, the Badderly family medals one again came to the fore, this time when they appeared in a local newspaper in Norwich, Norfolk, as having been sold out of the family by a Mr. F.W. Badderly, and sold to a local collector, Mr Major Mace. Both the Waterloo Medal and the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with their distinctive suspensions, had been housed together in a frame, and were photographed in the paper as such alongside a Scots Guards Colour Sergeant’s sleeve badge. At this time they were believed to be awarded to the same man, and this confusion would remain until recently.

Specification

Medal Type

Military Medals

Medal Category

Single Campaign Medals

Medal Monarch

Victorian

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