Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

Pair: Private H. Langdon, 13th Light Dragoons

Military General Service 1793-1814, 5 clasps, Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse (H. Langdon, 13th L. Dgns.); Waterloo 1815 (Henry Langdon, 13th Reg. Light Dragoons), this with old steel clip and silver hinged-bar suspension, and an attractive silver riband buckle bearing engraved battle honours for ‘Vittoria’, ‘Orthes’, ‘Toulouse’ and ‘Olivenza’, generally good very fine (2) £2500-3000

Henry Langdon was born in Rochester, Kent and enlisted in the 13th Light Dragoons in London in March 1805, aged 21 years. Subsequently embarked for the Peninsula, he was taken prisoner at Olivenza on 6 April 1811, when an advanced piquet of the 13th Light Dragoons was surprised at night by a body of French cavalry. The regimental history states:

‘Now the enemy in the course of his retirement by the second road mentioned came upon the embers of the camp-fires and speedily located the position of the squadron. In dashed the French cavalry among the sleeping men [of the 13th Light Dragoons], and, taking them for Portugueses, used the sabre without mercy. On discovering them to be British, however, they ‘were less ferocious and more intent on taking them prisoners’. The troopers of the 13th, aroused from sleep, with their sabres hung for the most part on the holster-pipes of their saddles, were totally unprepared for resistance. The officers, aroused from their cabin-floor beds by the cries and shouts, rushed for the door. Lieutenant Doherty and Lieutenant King managed to get outside. The former reached his horse, mounted, gave it its head and the spur, and though pursued by the French dragoons dashed out into the night, in what direction owing to the darkness he was unable to determine. By luck he rode towards a British vedette, by whom he was challenged. In this way the news of the surprise reached the army ... Major Morres and Lieutenant Moss were taken prisoners, together with one Sergeant-Major, five Corporals, two Trumpeters, two Farriers and forty Privates [including Langdon]. Sixty troop-horses and two camp-kettle mules were also captured ...’

Whether he escaped or was released remains unrecorded but by July of the same year Langdon re-appears on the regimental musters back in the U.K. at Weymouth with the remark, ‘From Prisoner of War 28 July 1811’. In April of the following year he returned to the Peninsula and was subsequently present at Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes and Toulouse, and, on the renewal of hostilities in 1815, at the Battle of Waterloo.

Langdon was discharged in June 1817 in consequence of a ‘bad leg’, his service papers further noting that he was ‘Struck Off in 1819 for refusing to attend the Call’ but that he was restored to his original pension on attending a Board in May 1856.