Lieutenant-Colonel William Fendall, 4th Dragoons, who commanded the regiment in India for 10 years and was one of the last ten surviving Peninsula officers

Military General Service 1793-1814, 4 clasps, Talavera, Albuhera, Vittoria, Toulouse (W. Fendall, Lieut. 4th Dgns.) good very fine £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Napoleonic War Medals.

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Provenance: Wallis and Wallis, November 2000.

William Fendall was born in Bengal, East Indies, on 26 March 1793. He was appointed a Cornet in the 4th Dragoons on 29 September 1808, becoming Lieutenant on 5 October 1809. He served in the Peninsula from April 1809 to November 1811, and from May 1812 to April 1814, taking part in the battles of Talavera and Albuhera, the cavalry affair at Usagre, the rearguard action at Aldea de Ponte, and the battles of Vittoria and Toulouse.

Promoted to Captain in February 1820, Fendall accompanied the regiment to India in 1822, where he was promoted to Major in June 1825. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1832 and commanded the regiment for 10 years in India, retiring when the regiment returned home in 1842.

Fendall had married, in November 1821, Caroline Eleanor Newton, at Wath, near Ripon, West Yorkshire, and together they had at least six children whilst stationed at Kirkee in India. Sadly four daughters died in the period 1831-38, probably from cholera, of which outbreaks were frequent. Despite these outbreaks, losses amongst the men of the regiment were kept commendably low due to an appreciation of hygiene in advance of the times. For example, when there was a fever epidemic in 1837 Colonel Fendall moved the regiment out of barracks into tents, and had the floors all taken up, the barracks whitewashed and the cesspools filled in. As a result only five men of the regiment died in the three months of the epidemic.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Fendall died at Blandford, Dorset, on 14 January 1888. According to Challis’ ‘Peninsula Roll Call’, he was the 8th of the last 10 Peninsula officer survivors.