1796 Sword Exercise of Cavalry Le Marchant

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    Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant1766 – 1812

    Portrait of Le Marchant at Chobham Place

    Le Marchant was a renowned cavalry general and military reformer who saw extensiveservice in the field against the French and exerted great influence and change on the BritishArmy. As a 16 year-old Le Marchant had challenged his colonel, Lord Porchester, to a dueland also tried to have a duel with a civilian, but he matured and redirected his energy tomilitary advancement and reform. His reforms went to the very core of the British Army andhis legacy lives on to this day in the training and education of Army officers. He gained thesupport and friendship of King George III and his death was lamented by the Duke ofWellington, the Duke of York and many other notables. A monument to him stands inSt.Paul’s Cathedral.

    Family

    Le Marchant was born in 1766 in Amiens, the son of John Le Marchant, who was a cavalryofficer from one of the most important Guernsey families (hence the French name but Britishallegiance). His mother was from French aristocracy. Le Marchant went to school in Bath(where he was regarded as a troublemaker) and was raised as British. He married Mary, aneighbour from Guernsey, in 1789 and had 10 children with her. Mary died giving birth totheir tenth child in 1811 at their house in High Wycombe

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    1797 – Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel (Second-in-Command), 7th Light Dragoons.1798 – Regimental Commander, 2nd Dragoon Guards.1801 – Established two officer training colleges (became Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst).

    1801-1810 – Lieutenant-Governor of the two colleges.1811 – Promoted to Major-General11 April 1812 – Led 5th Dragoon Guards to success at Villagarcia.22 July 1812 – Led 3rd Dragoons, 4th  and 5th Dragoon Guards to total victory at Salamanca,receiving a fatal gunshot wound in the process. He had allegedly killed 6 of the enemy withhis own hand.

    Cavalry Reform

    His experience in Flanders during 1793-95 led Le Marchant to believe that reform was neededin the British cavalry, both in terms of equipment and training. He seems to have takeinspiration from the Austrian cavalry in this case.

    In collaboration with the renowned sword maker Henry Osborn, Le Marchant designed whatwas to become the 1796 Pattern light cavalry sabre. This became one of the most loved ofBritish sword patterns and continued to be used around the world long after it had officiallybeen super ceded in mainstream British service. It was also copied by the German states and

    produced throughout the 19th

      century. Later sword patterns were often comparedunfavourably to the much loved ‘old British dragoon sabre’. In its time the 1796 light cavalrysabre was also emulated by infantry and naval officers who wanted more robust fightingswords and this led to the adoption of sabres for these services, replacing the old spadroons.

    Le Marchant also authored the new ‘Regulations’ for cavalry sword exercise which this

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