Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant (9 February 1766 – 22 July 1812) was one of the finest British cavalry commanders of his generation; he was also an intellectual soldier who had a great influence on the efficient functioning of the army he served in. He was instrumental in the process which produced the first British military academy and staff college; and he saw active service in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Peninsular War until his death at the Battle of Salamanca.
Background and early life
Le Marchant was born in Amiens to a French mother and Guernsey father, who both came from old and prominent families. The Le Marchants were an extremely distinguished family in Guernsey, formerly part of the Duchy of Normandy, with many of his ancestors holding the positions of Bailiff or Lieutenant-Bailiff of Guernsey. His father, John Le Marchant, was a Cornet in the Royal Dragoons who attended Pembroke College, Oxford, and served with distinction under the Marquess of Granby during the last three campaigns of the Seven Years' War. His mother, Marie Catherine, was the eldest daughter of Count Hirzel de Saint-Gratien and a descendant of the celebrated French Protestant leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, from whom Le Marchant derived his middle name.
Le Marchant was born at his maternal grandfather's house in Amiens. He had a younger brother, James. After leaving Dr Morgan's school in Bath characterised as "one of the two greatest dunces that had ever been there" (the other being Sir Sidney Smith), Le Marchant reformed his character and was commissioned in a regiment of the Wiltshire Militia. He later, in 1783, transferred to the regular army and obtained an ensigncy in the 1st Regiment of Foot (The Royal Regiment or Royal Scots). A few years of duty in Ireland and Gibraltar followed and he then made his move into the cavalry, being commissioned into the 6th Dragoons (Iniskillings). In the autumn of 1789 Le Marchant was promoted to lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), and in 1791 he was promoted to captain and given the command of a troop.
Campaign experience and swordsmanship manual
Le Marchant served as a brigade major during the disastrous Low Countries campaign of 1793-95, and for a time had command of his regiment as the most senior officer present. His practical experience in the field brought to Le Marchant's attention the many deficiencies of equipment and training the British cavalry suffered from. He was impressed by the Austrian cavalry who were operating alongside the British, and was particularly struck by the disparaging remark of an Austrian officer who thought that the British swordsmanship was "most entertaining" but reminded him of "someone chopping wood".
On his return to Britain he exerted himself to improve the equipment and combat training of the British cavalry. In 1795-6 he designed, in collaboration with the Birmingham sword cutler Henry Osborn, a new cavalry sabre, which was adopted for the light cavalry. In 1796 his treatise of instruction in mounted swordsmanship was adopted by the army as part of its official regulations, The Rules and Regulations of the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry. The sword exercise became quite celebrated, and the elderly king, George III, became familiar with it, and country lanes abounded with small boys practising the cuts with sticks. Le Marchant toured Britain teaching cadres, drawn from both regular and yeomanry cavalry units, his system of swordsmanship; his methods were practical and painstaking and he was himself a superb mounted swordsman. Le Marchant was also to have gone to Ireland to teach his sword exercise there but was prevented from doing so, so his brother-in-law, Lt. Peter Carey (16th Light Dragoons), undertook this duty in his stead. Le Marchant attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1797. His promotion was at the direct behest of the King (Le Marchant lacked the family influence and wealth which was normally necessary for advances in rank), with whom Le Marchant had developed a friendly relationship. King George is reported as saying to Le Marchant "I dare say many persons will claim the merit of your promotion; now I wish you to know that whatever merit there is in it rests entirely between you and me, for no one else is concerned in it"..