3 letters between Hare of Bristol family members.

Letter 1.

2 postmarks:

-       BCC SX 1180/29 (SG 3/20V) - 'STEYNING/I 72 I'. No lines above/below figure 72. Size 35cm x 10cm. Not noted in BCC nor in SG. Black ink.

-       BCC L104x (SG 1/32) - 'A/PAID/2 OC 2/1810'. Not in BCC London catalogue i.e. day number before and after month. L104 shows day number after month whilst L105 is a different shape. Red ink (although there was an attempt at using black ink).

Dated: 1^st October 1810

Entire from Steyning*, Sussex, to Totnes, Devon.

Letter from William Henry Hare to his father asking for an urgent advance of his allowance to pay off a debt of £40. He mentions that he was not sleeping well and that he had not taken any opium for several weeks and hoped that he would not take any again. He may well have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He tells of three men captured by the French at the Battle of Corunna but returned to the regiment. After capture they were marched to Bayonne and conscripted into the French army but managed to desert during the siege of Cuidad Rodrigo (10/07/1810). He mentions that he has not heard from his brother, Henry Hare.

*Steyning Army Camp(?)

Letter 2 (cross-written)

1 Postmark:

-       BCC HA/1013 (SG 3/22X) - 'PORTSMOUTH/15JY15/1811/73'. Flat-topped figure 3. Black ink.

Dated: 13^th July 1811

Entire from Spithead, Portsmouth, Hampshire, to Totnes, Devon.

Letter from William Henry to his parents.

Having marched from Steyning, via Chichester, to Portsmouth William Henry Hare was aboard ship (The Ellen) waiting to sail to Portugal. His brother, Henry, visited him while the ship laid at anchor.

William Henry mentions Ensign Dyas at the storming of Fort San Cristoval (Cristobal) which took place during the Second Siege of Badajoz in June 1811, part of the Peninsular War. Anglo-Portuguese forces under Lord Wellington launched two failed midnight assaults on June 6 and June 9, 1811, against the French-held fort, suffering heavy casualties before abandoning the siege. The 51st Foot bore a massive burden during both assaults on the fort, facing devastating French grapeshot and musketry.

During the first assault on June 6, 1811, Ensign Joseph Dyas of the 51st Foot volunteered to lead the "Forlorn Hope"—the vanguard steering the storming party. Dyas led his men directly into the ditch, only to find the French had cleared away the debris from the wall's base and that their scaling ladders were far too short. Trapped in the ditch under heavy fire, the regiment took severe losses. Major McIntosh ordered a retreat, but Dyas famously volunteered to lead the second assault just three nights later, on June 9, miraculously surviving both failed attempts. Dyas was thanked personally by The Duke of Wellington for his efforts.

Letter 3

1 Postmark:

-       BCC BS 69/34 (SG 3/22X) - 'BRISTOL/12AU12/1811/122'. Red ink.

Date: 9^th August 1811

Entire from Bristol to Plymouth, Devon.

Letter from Henry to his mother.

Advises that William Henry had sailed on the 28^th July and the ship put in at Falmouth on the 2^nd August.

Brevet-Major William Henry Hare (1792-1880) was appointed to the 51st Regiment of Foot (2^nd Yorkshire West Riding, King’s Own Light Infantry) as an Ensign in December 1807 and accompanied the Expedition to Corunna under Sir David Baird in October 1808. Subsequently present in the famous retreat of early 1809, and more especially at the Battle of Corunna on 16 January, young Hare, as the most junior Ensign, was given the unenvious task of carrying the Regimental Colour. As he would afterwards recall in a letter home, it was shot through in three places, 'two in the silk and one at the top of the staff'. Following this hair-raising baptism of fire, he was advanced to Lieutenant and landed from H.M.S. Imperieuse in late July to participate in the Walcheren Expedition. Present at the siege of Flushing, which surrendered on 14.8.1809, his Regiment was evacuated home in the following month, largely as a result of a debilitating fever which affected many of the troops.

Hare participated in further operations in Spain between September 1811 and December 1812, and again from March to June 1814, but he did not qualify for further clasps to his Military General Service Medal. Then following Napoleon's escape from Elba in February 1815, the 51st Regiment was despatched to the Continent and disembarked at Ostend in late March. William Henry Hare was subsequently present at the Battle of Waterloo and at the storming of Cambrai on 24.6.1815, afterwards accompanying the Regiment to the Bois de Boulogne, Paris as part of the Army of Occupation. Advanced to Captain in November 1819, he served in Corfu between 1821-22, in which latter year he was placed on Half-Pay. He finally retired as a Brevet-Major in January 1837 and died at Plymouth in March 1880, aged 89 years.  [Christie’s]

Ref: JBS236/JBS237/JBS238