Cavalry of the King's German Legion

    The Kings of England were also Electors of Hanover from 1714 on, under the same kind of Personal Union that united Denmark and Noway under the same ruler. In 1803, Mortier's French and allied troops occupied Hanover, meeting little political resistance and only slightly more military opposition.  Under the Elbe Convention of July 1803, between Marshal Mortier and General Wallmoden, the Hanoverian Army was to be disbanded. When King George II refused to ratify the convention, the members of the former members of the Hanoverian army were  no longer obligated not to serve against France or its allies. Recruitment of a "King's German Regiment started shortly thereafter,  By December 1803, it was combined with another foreign formation to form The King's German Legion under the command of Adolph, Duke of Cambridge.

    By 1805, the Legion included 1 regiment each of Heavy Dragoons and Light Dragoons (Hussars), 2 Light Battalions, 4 Line Battalions, 2 Horse and three Foot batteries. Continued recruitment in Hanover and elsewhere eventually brought the Legion (by March 1806) to 2 Heavy Dragoon Regiments, 3 Light Dragoon (hussar) regiments, 2 Line and 8 Line battalions, 2 Horse and 4 Foot batteries. All told, roughly 15,000 men served in the ranks of the Legion over the course of the Napoleonic Wars, more than  40% of them having served in the old Electoral army of Hanover. Troops of the Legion fought at Copenhagen in 1807, the Baltic in 1808, with Moore in Spain in 1808 - 1809, the Walcheren expedition in 1809, in Spain and later France with Wellington from 1809 -1814, and elements also saw action at Genoa and Northern Europe in 1814. The Legion saw action again during the 100 days campaign in 1815, with elements fighting at Quatre Bras, and at Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte on the field of Waterloo. The Legion was disbanded in 1816, with the men being taken up into the newly re-established Hanoverian army.

https://archive.org/stream/historykingsger00beamgoog/historykingsger00beamgoog_djvu.txt

Uniforms of the Cavalry of the King's German Legion

Wellington especially prized the KGL cavalry units, as they seemed more disciplined and less liable to get carried away in pursuit. In addition, they were especially proficient at the key scouting duties of light cavalry.  Like the KGL infantry, the uniforms of these troops were similar to their British counterparts, and evolved in a similar way over the course of the Napoleonic Wars.

Heavy Dragoons

 Until the later years of the Legion, the Heavy Dragoons wore uniforms similar to those of  their Hanoverian antecedents - red coats with the facing color on the collar, cuffs, and turnbacks. Black bicornes with a white plume, red base. Pants were white for full dress, grey for campaign wear. Shabraques were blue with black trim for the 1st regiment, red for the 2nd.

KGL Heavy Dragoons (1804 - 1813)

Regt	Facings	Lace/Buttons
# 1	Dark Blue	Yellow
# 2	Black	Yellow

2nd Regiment, Light Dragoons, KGL  (ex Heavy Dragoons)  1813 - 1816 ( in the front rank); Old Glory 28mm figures. red facings with yellow lace 9gold for officers, as usual)

In 1813, the Heavy Dragoons regiments were converted to Light Dragoons. the coats became dark blue with facing color on the collar, cuffs, turnbacks, and lapels. A re and blue striped girdle was worn around the waist. A Black shako with a white over red plume was worn, nearly identical to the uniforms of the British Light Dragoons of the same era. 

KGL Light Dragoons (1814 - 1816

Regt	Facings	Lace/Buttons
# 1	Red	Yellow
# 2	Red	White

KGL Hussars

Like their British counterparts, the KGL Hussras wore dark blue uniforms, and had the confusing designation of Light Dragoons (Hussars), changed to just plain Hussars when the Heavy Dragoons were converted to Light Dragoons. Gotta love the idiosyncrasies of the British military! It seems that the first regiment initially retained its Hanoverian uniform, but as the the other regiments were raised, they had Light Dragoions style uniforms with Tarleton helmets and coats with facing colored lapels. The dolman alone was then adopted along with fur busbys with red bags (perhaps circa 1810?), but when the 3rd regiment adopted the pelisse, the other two regiments quickly followed suit. Thankfully, the facing and lace colors remained constant throughout the period!

In the second rank is the 3rd Hussars, KGL. Yellow facings and white lace (silver for officers, as usual)

LIght Dragoons (Hussars)(1804 - 1816)

Regt	Facings	Lace/Buttons	Pelisse Fur
# 1	Scarlet	Yellow	Black
# 2	White	Yellow	White
# 3	Yellow	White	Grey*

* Black fur for officers of this regiment

Flags and Standards

From Hanoveresche Militargeschicte, which gives many additional details on the KGL cavalry, "Every heavy regiment had a rectangular, red king’s colour, which showed a white rose and a thistle under a king’s crown in the middle. On the reverse one could see the Irish cloverleaf with a white scroll with the motto "Honni soit, qui mal y pense" underneath. 4 small blue and gold bordered shields in the corners showed the letters K.G.D. (King’s German Dragoons) or the white horse. Every squadron also had a scalloped guidon of silk in the colour of collars and facings of the respective regiment  [i.e., dark blue for the first regiment, and black for the second] with a larger red field in the middle and embellishments like those on the king’s colours. The guidons were nearly as high as the colours. The most junior cornets carried the guidons and the colours." The Hussar regiments did  not carry colors. 

I have cheated a bit with the flag, using the King's Guidon of the 14th British Light Dragoons by GMB designs. As that regiment has white lace, I repainted the fringe in gold, as appropriate for the 2nd KGL Dragoons/L.D, but the cartouches with unit designation is of course wrong and in the wrong color and style, and it is still a swallow-tailed guidon rather than a square standard,. among other incongruities. Heck, they're lucky to have a flag at all!  :-)

I used my strongest black "magic wash" on these figures, and I think it worked quite well, especially on the braiding of the pelisses. 

All of the KGL cavalry units acquired battle honors:  1st (Light) Dragoons  Garcia Hernandez (July 1812), 2nd (Light) Dragoons Garcia Hernandez, 1st Hussars El Bodon (September 1811, 2nd Hussars Barrossa (May 1811), 3rd Hussars  Ghoerde (September 1813). All also had "Peninsular", and all but the 2nd Hussars had "Waterloo" as well. These were passed along to the Hanoverian army until Hanover was incorporated into the German Empire in 1867. They were restored to those German units recruited in Hanover as of 1899, until the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914.