Not One in Ten Thousand Know Your Name: the Officers
of the British 1st Battalion of Detachments in 1809 -- Captain Clement Poole 52nd
Foot
Clement Poole was from the Quantock Hills area of Somerset. He
was commission an ensign without purchase in the 52nd Foot in
June 1803.[1] In 1803, Ensign Poole was
promoted to lieutenant without purchase with a date of rank of 25 October 1803.[2] In 1806, he was promoted
to captain without purchase with a date of rank of 29 May 1806.[3]
In August 1808, Captain Poole deployed with the 2nd Battalion
52nd Foot to Portugal . He would fight with the regiment
at Vimeiro, but when they marched into Spain in November he stayed
behind with those too sick to for an active service. In February
1809, he was attached to the 1st Battalion of Detachments. He
commanded the 52nd Company, which consisted of four officers
and 125 rank and file from the 52nd Foot. The battalion
would be part of General Stewart’s Brigade, which also had the
29th Foot and 48th Foot assigned to it. He would
command them at the crossing of the Douro, where the company was mentioned
specifically by Wellington after the battle when he stated
“. . . the Commander of the Forces has had repeated opportunities
of witnessing and applauding the gallantry of the officers and the
troops, the activity and conduct of the 95th, and of the Light Infantry
of the 29th the 43rd and 52nd."[4]
Captain Poole also commanded them during the Talavera Campaign, but
with much less distinction. He was listed as missing on the 1st day
of the battle, when the 1st Battalion of Detachments was so heavily
engaged.[5] This information
reached Lieutenant Charles Kinloch who was with the 2nd Battalion,
which was serving in the Walcheren Expedition by 17 August – less
than three weeks after the battle! (Captain Poole was Kinloch’s
company commander.)[6]
Captain Poole apparently lost his nerve and disappeared when Stewart’s
Brigade was ordered to attack the French on the summit of the Medellin,
a high hill that overlooked the British left flank. Lieutenant
Leslie of the 29th Foot, who was seriously wounded, saw him later
that day.
“When I went to the rear after being wounded and found Dr.
Guthrie, our surgeon, he examined my wound and pronounced it to be
very severe, but he trusted that it would not prove dangerous. He
could not extract the ball, which seemed to have taken an oblique
direction downwards. He dressed and then bound up my wound, and recommended
me to go to the rear where the baggage had been ordered to rendezvous,
and not to go into the town, as everyone seemed to doubt if the Spaniards
would stand their ground, and prevent the enemy from forcing its
way into it. So leaving him we fell in with a stray horse, which
had either broken loose or whose owner had fallen. So I was lifted
upon it, but my blood was now getting cool, my leg very stiff, and
the pain occasioned by the motion intolerable. I therefore got off,
and hobbled along with my two supporters. On my way I came up to
Captain Poole of the 52nd Regiment, who belonged to the first battalion
of detachments, and our Brigade Commissary, Mr. Brook. . . ”
“The Captain accompanied me in search of our baggage. We at
length found it at a single house on the high road from Talavera
to Oropeza, about two miles from the field. I made my way into this
empty house. The batman of the company and some women of the regiment
got me some straw, and a blanket being spread upon it, I was laid
down. The pain of the wound became very acute, but there was no remedy
but to grin and bear it. The poor women were in great distress. All
came in to visit me, and made many anxious inquiries about the fate
of their husbands. I had the satisfaction of assuring four or five
of them that their husbands were safe when I left them, or only slightly
wounded, but many others were forlorn widows. They most kindly made
some tea for me. But the absurd part was their sympathy with the
Captain. They all asked him where he was hit, and trusted that he
was not badly wounded. He seemed sadly worried and perplexed what
answer to give. He replied in a faint voice that he was extremely
ill with fever. In about an hour afterwards, perhaps nine o'clock
a.m., Lieutenant Stanus of our Regiment was brought in also severely
wounded.”
“Various reports began to spread; some that the enemy had made
another attack, and had succeeded in forcing a part of our line;
others that the enemy had sent troops into the mountains on our left,
and had succeeded in turning that flank. Cowardly runaways from the
Spanish army continued to pass to the rear in increased numbers,
two or three of these fellows frequently on one horse. From seeing
this we began to surmise that the enemy might really have defeated
part of the Spanish force; and as the baggage began to move off farther
to the rear, we determined to get on to a bullock car, and to make
the best of our way back to Oropeza, the nearest town in our rear.
Our friend the Captain, on the first rumours of adverse reports,
without waiting to inquire whether they were likely to prove true
or false, started up very nimbly, mounted his pony, and set off in
all haste out of harm's way to the rear.”[7]
Captain Poole turned up the next morning in Oropesa about 50 kilometers
to the west of Talavera, supposedly sick.[8]
Captain Poole returned to England in September 1809, where he was
assigned to the 2nd Battalion 52nd Foot. He would
spend the next fourteen months at Lewes in East Sussex. On 26
January 1811, the 2nd Battalion boarded transports at Portsmouth
for the Peninsula. Captain Poole would fight with the 2nd Battalion
at Sabugal and Fuentes d’Onoro. In August 1811, he was
transferred to the 1st Battalion, which was also in the Peninsula. He
would serve with them at the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812. In
April, before the assault on the breach at Badajoz, Captain Poole had
a premonition that he was going to “certain death”. [9] He was buried in the ditch
at the base of the breach with four other officers from his regiment.[10]
Notes:
[1] London Gazette: 28 June 1803.
[2] London Gazette: 9 November 1803
[3] London Gazette: 3 June 1806; Army
List: January 1809
[4] Verner: vol. ii; p. 55
[5] London Gazette: 15 August 1809
[6] Glover; p. 23
[7] Leslie, Charles; pp. 154 - 156
[8] Oman ; vol ii. p. 649
[9] Dobbs; p. 38
[10] Glover; p. 95
Placed on the Napoleon Series: February 2009
[ Not
One in Ten Thousand Know Your Name: the Officers of the British
1st Battalion of Detachments in 1809 ] |
