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neilston
Joined: 14 Dec 2012 Posts: 370 Location: Neilston
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Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 3:45 am Post subject: Lieutenant Matthew Anderson (1780 – 1844) what a story |
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Lieutenant Matthew Anderson (1780 – 1844)
Matthew Anderson was a native of Neilston, near Glasgow, Scotland. In 1808 he joined the 91st (Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment of Foot from the Renfrewshire Militia (which he had joined in 1805) as an Ensign. He was made a Lieutenant the following year and in 1810 transferred to the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot, where he remained for the remainder of the war. He fought during the Walcheren Campaign and in many battles of the Peninsular War. During the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812 he helped lead the company of the 52nd which, in a surprise attack, took Redoubt Renaud.
Anderson was wounded twice before Waterloo, including at the Battle of the Nivelle (1813). One of these wounds was caused “by a spent ball, which entered his ear, ran round between the skin and the flesh, and came out at the back of his neck,” and the other was “through the elbow.”
At Waterloo, Anderson was with the first battalion of the 52nd. When Lieutenant-Colonel John Colborne (later Lord Seaton) , the commanding officer of the 52nd, saw the Imperial Guard advancing in a final push, he ordered Anderson to take a company of about 100 skirmishers to meet the French column, with the 52nd advancing behind them. It was the (apparently unexpected) fire from this company that first caused the halt of the Imperial Guard.
The 52nd skirmishers suffered greatly in this attack, and both officers (Anderson and Lieutenant Campbell) were severely wounded, with Anderson having his left leg shot off. According to an obituary, Anderson
lay on the field for three or four hours; and, while lying there, had his watch, sword, and everything of value about him stolen by a soldier’s wife. An English officer, in pity for his sufferings, tried to tramp him to death with his horse, but the sagacious animal leapt over him, and unhorsed its rider. His leg, after he was taken to the infirmary, required to be amputated three different times.
While Anderson was lying on the field of Waterloo, the 52nd accidently shot into the 23rd Light Dragoons, and he said that he overheard the “commanding officer exclaim, in a tone of vexation, ‘It’s always the case, we always lose more men by our own people than we do by the enemy.’”
Despite his lost leg, Anderson was put on active duty during the occupation of France following Waterloo. In the fall of 1817, the Duke of Wellington finally removed Anderson from active duty and recommended him for half pay. However, the case was not reviewed by the Duke of York (the commander-in-chief of the British army) until the spring of 1818, when the occupation was nearly over.
Anderson was made a Captain of the 52nd in 1821 and retired immediately afterwards. He acquired the family lands of Broadlie in Neilston and devoted the rest of the life to improving Broadlie (from the “garden of the sluggard” to “a fertile field, delightful to look on”) and to encouraging agriculture in Neilston. |
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spoons
Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 4991 Location: St John's Town of Dalry
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Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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fascinating story, any memorials to him? perhaps in a local church?
\Paul |
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anne park Our first ever 2000 poster
Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 21200 Location: Aberdeen
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:37 am Post subject: Ancestry has a bit more about him |
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I checked and on Ancestry there is a public tree with lots more info. _________________ Researching WWI info from Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire & Morayshire. |
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neilston
Joined: 14 Dec 2012 Posts: 370 Location: Neilston
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Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Anne I will look this up
Cheers Matt |
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