10th "Prince of Wales' Own" Hussars

    Trotting off the painting desk is the first completed unit for 2017, the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Light Dragoons (Hussars). This Regiment was first raised as Dragoons in 1715, during the first Jacobite Rebellion. It did not contest that, but did participate in the suppression of the Second Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. It was sent Germany in 1759 during the Seven Years Eat, and fought at Warburg in 1760, before returning to England. 

    In 1793, it was converted to Light Dragoons, and titled as the 10th (Price of Wales's Own. It was one of the most prestigious units in the army due to its connection to the royal House. The Prince himself became colonel of the Regiment in 1796, and took an active role in its affairs. He remained its colonel until his coronation as King George IV in 1820!

The Price of Wales renamed and re-equipped the Regiment as Hussars in 1806. At that time it had yellow facings with white/silver lace. It was sent to the Peninsula in 1808, and covered the retreat of Sir John Moore's army to Corunna in 1809. In the process, it fought at Benavente, capturing French general Lefebvre-Desounettes.  This is the uniform that I have chosen to paint my version of the unit.

This version of the regiment's uniform had numerous idiosyncrasies.  First, it had a lace border or "frame" around the lace on the pelisse, and presumably, also the dolman (not painted). Second, the NCO's had an inverted lace chevron on their sleeves, with the embroidered badge of the Prince of Wales (the hat with three feathers) above it - this idiosyncrasy persisted until its amalgamation with the King's Own Hussars in 1992! (I didn't attempt to paint that in 28mm, either!)

  The troopers had brown fur colpacks with yellow bags, but the officers had grey colpacks with red bags. Similarly, the fur on the pelisse was grey for officers but white for the men.  These are Old Glory 28mm figures with the excellent GMB flags (it is doubtful that the flags were carried in the field earlier in the Napoleonic Wars, and certain that they were not later, but eh!)

Being thrifty I have used the squadron color of the 15th (King's Own) Hussars, which will be up for review next, as the King's color of the 10th. The only differences would be the badge of the Prince of Wales would presumably be the central device, replacing the Union sprig, and the number in the ovals. The King's color was crimson, unless the regiment had the "Royal" designation,  in which case it was Dark Blue. Squadron colors had a field of the facing colors, except for Royal regiments in which they were red. So the 10th's squadron colors would have had a yellow field. Confusing enough? 

No?  Well, in March 1811 it added the "Royal" designation, becoming the 10th (Prince of Wales Own Royal) Light Dragoons (Hussars) - quite a mouthful! This required a change in its facing color to red. Hamilton-Smith shows an NCO of the regiment in "Review order" at this time, with a red shabraque with white lace edging and vandyking. That would have changed the regiments flags to one blue King's color and several red colors, one each for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc squadrons. I have given the trumpeter a grey horse, but the British didn't follow that practice (and also docked the tails of thier horses). 

The 10th returned to the Peninsula in 1813, and continued on with Wellington into the South of France in 1814. It was re-equipped with Scarlet shakos in 1813, and when re-clothed in 1814 it now had blue collar and cuffs! It fought again during the Waterloo campaign in 1815. The motto of the Regiment was that of the Prince of Wales, "Ich Dien" ("I serve"), and its nickname was "The shiny 10th"... perhaps the origin of the distractable wargamer's exclamation, "Oooh, shiny!"?