Lot Essay
Captain Osborne Barwell was appointed a Cornet in the 1st Royal Dragoons in September 1811 and was evidently well established in the Regiment by the time of the Battle of Vittoria on 21.6.1813, when Wellington, displaying his known bias against the Cavalry, declined to throw the Royals into the pursuit of the fleeing enemy, despite the Regiment having taken 143 prisoners and having killed many others at Alba de Tormes a month earlier.
Subsequent to the Battle of Vittoria the Royals were sent down into the valley of the Aragon where the Regiment was cantoned in the villages of Sanguessa and Lumbeira. Here a number of new Officers, 'devoid of experience of life', joined, and Barwell became embroiled in the sort of behaviour that contributed towards the Iron Duke's low opinion of his mounted arm. The following extract has been taken from A.E. Clark-Kennedy's history of the Royals in the Peninsula based upon the Journal kept by Officers of the Regiment below field rank:
'Among them was young Jack Slade, who arrived with a 'vast store of baggage' and was 'most aggressive in his manner' from the start ... One night the young Officers had got more drunk than was usual and decided to raid someone's house ... and decided to seek vengeance on young Slade who, for some reason, had refused to join the party that night. First they tried to pull down his door. But they could make no impression on it. Then they started throwing stones at his window, calling on Jack to come out and explain. The only reply was a brickbat which struck Osborne Barwell, described as 'a very lively fellow when rendered generous by wine', pretty hard; and he was so generous on this occasion that he climbed the wall, pulled down the shutters, and burst into Jack's room where he found him in bed, quietly reading by the light of a candle and affecting to know nothing of what was going on outside! This so enraged the over generous Barwell that 'he reduced Jack's body to a jelly, and left many marks of flowing claret on the sheets'. Next day Barwell realised the iniquity of what he had done and saw that the only way out now was a duel. Slade also consulted his brother Officers, and all agreed that he ought to challenge Barwell. So Jack issued his challenge ... At four o'clock that afternoon the two contestants met. Slade, as challenger, was to have first shot. But his pistol missed fire. So, as it was advisable in this affair that every advantage should go to the injured party, Trafford, who was acting as Barwell's second, agreed that Jack should have a second fire. Slade now fired again, and missed. 'Whereupon Barwell very properly fired into the air, and so terminated the affair'. But it is very probable that had Jack's first fire been effective, it could have been fatal, as his pistol was well directed and the distance short'.
'Before long yet more young and green Officers arrived - among them Frederick Cobbold whom Osborne Barwell immediately took under his wing, instructing him how to eat and drink like a gentleman. He also started to play practical jokes on him. He told him that it was the done thing for a new arrival to give a dinner party to which Barwell and his friends invited themselves and polished off all the wine and brandy that he, Cobbold, had brought out from home. He also had brought two greyhounds, and Barwell told him that, as he had not got good enough horses to correspond to them, it was his duty to present them to Dashwood and Bringhurst. These two were presumably friends of Barwell. The innocent swallowed this, and on his return said that it was perfectly clear that he had done the right thing!'
Over the ensuing Winter, with military operations suspended, there is glimpse of Barwell, together with the "Ruler" (the Royals' C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel Clifton) and two other Officers, Phipps and Hulton, indulging in a four day epicurean jaunt to Saragossa 'where they put up at the inn kept by a Frenchman, whose ingenuity was now kept at the alert for three days cooking for the party'. On the fourth day they started back, 'their mules laden with champagne, hams and Bologna sausages'.
The outing, alas, proved too much for Hulton, for this bon vivant died shortly after their return to quarters. In March 1814, the Royals left Winter Quarters and catching up with the Army crossed into France. On 10 April they were present at the Battle of Toulouse and two days later crossed the Languedoc Canal to reach Villa Franca where they learnt that Paris had fallen and the War was over, which, of course, provided Barwell and his friends with an excuse to celebrate:
'Here, as can be imagined, discipline declined still further, and on one occasion, according to the day journal, a number of junior Officers, including Barwell, Blois and Micklethwaite, set a particularly bad example to the men by being absent without leave for several days. So Purvis was forced into action. 'No sooner had the Major, looking so respectable in his belt and sword,' writes the Journal, 'reached the market place than some women told him that there was a British Officer at the Hotel de l'Aigle noir qui ne faisait rien que pleurer'. Thither Purvis now headed, and there found one of the miscreants in a maudlin state of hopeless intoxication. So Provost Sergeant Else was summoned and, with the assistance of a cart, the gallant Officer and gentleman was carried back to his quarters. No punishment of any kind is recorded - this seems lenient - and the fate of the other missing Officers is not recorded either'.
The Royals returned to England in July 1814 whence the axe of redundancy fell heavily on the recently-joined Cornets and Barwell's services were dispensed with, though it is admitted by the editor Clark-Kennedy that he at least had endured some of the hardships of the Campaign. The opportunity was also taken to get rid of the unpopular poker-faced Provost Sergeant Else who afterwards apparently took to a life of crime in Birmingham, and having committed a number of burglaries was caught and sentenced to death.
Barwell thereafter effected an exchange into the 11th Light Dragoons and gained advancement to Lieutenant in April 1812. He subsequently saw service in India, taking part in the Bhurtpore operations between December 1825 and January 1826, and became Captain in the following August. He was placed on the Retired List in January 1828, and having settled at Dieppe, was still enjoying life there as late as 1860.
Subsequent to the Battle of Vittoria the Royals were sent down into the valley of the Aragon where the Regiment was cantoned in the villages of Sanguessa and Lumbeira. Here a number of new Officers, 'devoid of experience of life', joined, and Barwell became embroiled in the sort of behaviour that contributed towards the Iron Duke's low opinion of his mounted arm. The following extract has been taken from A.E. Clark-Kennedy's history of the Royals in the Peninsula based upon the Journal kept by Officers of the Regiment below field rank:
'Among them was young Jack Slade, who arrived with a 'vast store of baggage' and was 'most aggressive in his manner' from the start ... One night the young Officers had got more drunk than was usual and decided to raid someone's house ... and decided to seek vengeance on young Slade who, for some reason, had refused to join the party that night. First they tried to pull down his door. But they could make no impression on it. Then they started throwing stones at his window, calling on Jack to come out and explain. The only reply was a brickbat which struck Osborne Barwell, described as 'a very lively fellow when rendered generous by wine', pretty hard; and he was so generous on this occasion that he climbed the wall, pulled down the shutters, and burst into Jack's room where he found him in bed, quietly reading by the light of a candle and affecting to know nothing of what was going on outside! This so enraged the over generous Barwell that 'he reduced Jack's body to a jelly, and left many marks of flowing claret on the sheets'. Next day Barwell realised the iniquity of what he had done and saw that the only way out now was a duel. Slade also consulted his brother Officers, and all agreed that he ought to challenge Barwell. So Jack issued his challenge ... At four o'clock that afternoon the two contestants met. Slade, as challenger, was to have first shot. But his pistol missed fire. So, as it was advisable in this affair that every advantage should go to the injured party, Trafford, who was acting as Barwell's second, agreed that Jack should have a second fire. Slade now fired again, and missed. 'Whereupon Barwell very properly fired into the air, and so terminated the affair'. But it is very probable that had Jack's first fire been effective, it could have been fatal, as his pistol was well directed and the distance short'.
'Before long yet more young and green Officers arrived - among them Frederick Cobbold whom Osborne Barwell immediately took under his wing, instructing him how to eat and drink like a gentleman. He also started to play practical jokes on him. He told him that it was the done thing for a new arrival to give a dinner party to which Barwell and his friends invited themselves and polished off all the wine and brandy that he, Cobbold, had brought out from home. He also had brought two greyhounds, and Barwell told him that, as he had not got good enough horses to correspond to them, it was his duty to present them to Dashwood and Bringhurst. These two were presumably friends of Barwell. The innocent swallowed this, and on his return said that it was perfectly clear that he had done the right thing!'
Over the ensuing Winter, with military operations suspended, there is glimpse of Barwell, together with the "Ruler" (the Royals' C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel Clifton) and two other Officers, Phipps and Hulton, indulging in a four day epicurean jaunt to Saragossa 'where they put up at the inn kept by a Frenchman, whose ingenuity was now kept at the alert for three days cooking for the party'. On the fourth day they started back, 'their mules laden with champagne, hams and Bologna sausages'.
The outing, alas, proved too much for Hulton, for this bon vivant died shortly after their return to quarters. In March 1814, the Royals left Winter Quarters and catching up with the Army crossed into France. On 10 April they were present at the Battle of Toulouse and two days later crossed the Languedoc Canal to reach Villa Franca where they learnt that Paris had fallen and the War was over, which, of course, provided Barwell and his friends with an excuse to celebrate:
'Here, as can be imagined, discipline declined still further, and on one occasion, according to the day journal, a number of junior Officers, including Barwell, Blois and Micklethwaite, set a particularly bad example to the men by being absent without leave for several days. So Purvis was forced into action. 'No sooner had the Major, looking so respectable in his belt and sword,' writes the Journal, 'reached the market place than some women told him that there was a British Officer at the Hotel de l'Aigle noir qui ne faisait rien que pleurer'. Thither Purvis now headed, and there found one of the miscreants in a maudlin state of hopeless intoxication. So Provost Sergeant Else was summoned and, with the assistance of a cart, the gallant Officer and gentleman was carried back to his quarters. No punishment of any kind is recorded - this seems lenient - and the fate of the other missing Officers is not recorded either'.
The Royals returned to England in July 1814 whence the axe of redundancy fell heavily on the recently-joined Cornets and Barwell's services were dispensed with, though it is admitted by the editor Clark-Kennedy that he at least had endured some of the hardships of the Campaign. The opportunity was also taken to get rid of the unpopular poker-faced Provost Sergeant Else who afterwards apparently took to a life of crime in Birmingham, and having committed a number of burglaries was caught and sentenced to death.
Barwell thereafter effected an exchange into the 11th Light Dragoons and gained advancement to Lieutenant in April 1812. He subsequently saw service in India, taking part in the Bhurtpore operations between December 1825 and January 1826, and became Captain in the following August. He was placed on the Retired List in January 1828, and having settled at Dieppe, was still enjoying life there as late as 1860.