Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Waterloo 1815 (Charles Remte, 8th Line Batt. K.G.L.) fitted with steel clip and ring suspension, light contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine £1200-1500

Charles Remte enlisted at Palermo, Sicily, on 18 May 1812, and served on that island until December 1813. He served thereafter in Hanover, Gibraltar, and in Flanders and France until returning to Hanover after the Waterloo campaign.

The 8th Line Battalion suffered badly at Waterloo as a result of an imprudent order from the Prince of Orange, who ordered the battalion to advance to relieve La Haye Sainte. Despite warnings of the presence of massed French cavalry, hidden by a natural fold in the land, the German battalion was caught in line by the cavalry who made short and bloody work of them. As a result the 8th Line Battalion ceased to exist as a fighting unit and suffered the further ignominy of losing the King’s Colour to Napoleon’s Garde-Chasseurs, the first and only time in the history of the Legion that a colour was lost in battle. It was subsequently recovered by a Hannoverian cavalryman at Sockel on 1 August 1815. Sold with muster details and other research.