On the 19th of July 1835 Hely became a Cornet, and later (on some unknown date), a Captain in the 1st Lancers (Reana Isobel).
The Reana Isobel Lancers formed part of a volunteer force - the Anglo-Spanish, Auxiliary or British Legion - raised to support the young Queen Isabella II of Spain (born 1830), in the civil war against her uncle, Don Carlos, in the First Carlist War of 1835-37.
In May 1835 leave was granted by William IV and his Cabinet to raise a force of 10,000 men. Enlistment into the Legion was for two years and the command was given to Colonel George de Lacy Evans, then an MP for Westminster, and later commander of the 2nd Division in the Crimea. The Legion returned to England in June 1837. The war was characterised by a series of atrocities.
Hely emerges from this as rather an unsavoury character, as extracts from Alexander Somerville's History of the Spanish Legion show. Referring to the way in which many of the soldiers were treated by their officers:
"We have officers now in London, and English society has admitted them in the shape of gentlemen, who not only punished men with undue severity, but literally committed murder.
Amongst them was Captain H--y, of the Lancers. Let us follow a narrative of his Conduct, for a few pages, to see the suffering of some of his victims. H--y had been Riding Master of the 7th Dragoon Guards, and is well remembered in that Corps still.
Corporal Tucker
One of those who suffered by him in Spain, and did not live to see the author of his sufferings disgraced, was a Corporal Tucker. He was the son of the landlady of a tavern - somewhere in London, but unknown to me - called the "Marlborough Head". He was a very well-educated young man, and as far as I have heard, well-behaved. Some whim led him to join the Spanish service, and for a time after going out, and while the treatment was as good as that of British soldiers, he, like the others, did not feel much hardship.
The march from Santander to Victoria came, and following the dreary and hungry winter, Tucker was soon reduced to a skeleton, and the common disease, accompanied by the hard biting frost, had affected his feet. He lay for some days on the bare floor of the nearly roofless - doorless - window-less and altogether fireless old convent, in which the Lancers were quartered, unable to move, wrapped only in his cloak, when the Sergeant Major, a person named Carey, accused the poor fellow of skulking. Captain H--y reiterated the accusation and ordered him to be forced to his duty.
Unable to stir, he pleaded to be left alone to die there; but they would not give him even that indulgence. Dragged from his corner, the most horrible scene presented itself. As a living proof of his inability to rise, there was a mass of filth and vermin collected about him, he being wasting away in a flux which, at that time, by the poisonous ingredients mixed in the bread by the Spanish bakers, and other causes, had affected nearly all the men in the Legion.
Poor Tucker, in that hopeless dying state, got four dozen lashes by order of the Captain, to force him to his duty, the officer considering there was nothing wrong with him. Let the reader of this suppose for one minute the possibility of a lively gay young man, used to the fastidious manners of London society,, lying in such a state; and persisting in it from sheer laziness.
Only he was more fortunate than the others, for death relieved him from his misery. He was taken to hospital - if the bare walls of an unfurnished house can be called a hospital; and both of his legs were cut off while the punishment he had received still smarted in his flesh.
At this time a letter came from his mother, in answer to one he had sent home informing her where he was. Two days later his body was thrown into one of those gorged holes where the dead were unceremoniously tipped into and this was the end of the gay youth who had applied to be a soldier...
Sergeant Deana
Let us now proceed to another case:
In the Peninsula War there was an officer in the Commissary's Department named Deana, and he had a son who enlisted into the ranks of the 15th Hussars and had served in that corps for some years with a blameless character; and it is of he of whom I will now speak.
Some of the officers who served in the same corps have since spoken and borne ample testimony to the excellence of Deana's character. He, after leaving the 15th, went to Spain, and amongst the profusion of promises that were made in this country without measure, he had been promised the rank of Sergeant-Major.
The promises were so profusely made in order to induce men to go out and it became impossible to realise even a hundreth part of them. Deana, for some time, found himself still a Private, but being a decidedly clever soldier and a fine looking man, he soon got promoted. To those who knew him, I need say nothing; to those who did not, I may mention that he was the first dragoon of the Legion who turned out, fully accoutred and mounted, to be inspected by the Spanish generals; to show what appearance an English lancer had in full uniform, prior to the regiment being drilled and equipped. Also he drilled the regiment in the use of the carbine; which, with all other parts of the cavalry exercise, he performed to perfection.
It will therefore be seen that he was a most valuable man to have in a regiment in the infancy of its formation. How he was to be treated afterwards the following will show. The long and wearisome march of the Legion, from Santander and Bilbao, to Vittoria, brought the regiment within the black gates of the last-named city, late in the evening of the 5th of December 1835.
It is true that the inhabitants cheered the sunken spirits of the hungry Legion as it entered the town; for a profusion of illuminated devices were erected over the Santa Clara Gate; and bands of music playing the national hymns, with the viva's of the people at their windows, seemed to welcome the weary soldiers who had traversed the mountains for more than a month, to enter and share the friendship of Vittoria.
But the ruined convents, of which there were an abundance about Vittoria, were allotted as quarters to the English. So without any bedding of any description, the weary soldiers lay dawn on the cold damp stones, being overcome with fatigue, to arise the next day shivering with ague and dysentery.
Amongst the thousands who suffered such sickness was Sergeant Deana of the Lancers, whose story I am pursuing. He was, in the first place, reduced to the ranks by Captain H--y for having said he was unwell and not able to do stable duty on the morning after their arrival in Vittoria. Deana was shortly afterwards in a skirmish, when a charge was made against a party of Carlists, in the direction of Salvatierra. His horse came down with him, and he being severely disabled by the fall, was for some time under medical treatment. He had a valuable watch, and being about to die, as was thought, the Captain and the Sergeant Major, who in all things went hand in glove, embezzling stores and money, as well as plundering the men through their accounts, etc., made an attempt to get hold of this watch.
Deana was married; and it should have been mentioned sooner, that his wife was one of the few industrious and well-behaved women who left England to share the Spanish campaign. She wrought hard, and by making a little money was able to keep her husband in a billet where there was a bed. A species of annoyance and ill-treatment towards the poor woman was unremittingly kept up by the two heartless persecutors, insult followed insult during her husband's illness, until one day a demand was peremptorily made for the watch. She refused to part with it.
A few hours afterwards, Captain H--y came to the billet and said, "Deana, you must go immediately to your duty. I will not have you skulking like this." "But I am not able to walk through the room," he replied. "Well, you must walk to your duty, or else to hospital. I shall not allow you to stay here", was the retort.
Deana replied to Captain H--y, "Sir, do with me what you will and think proper, but I cannot move." The Captain went away, and in a few minutes the guard came in and he with it, and took Deana off to the guard-house - which guard-house was nothing more than the open lobby of a convent, through which the snow drifted and the wind blew without intermission. Here the poor man lay for three days, and was then taken before a court-martial.
One of the members of the court was Captain (afterwards Major) Baker, son of the Coroner for Middlesex. This officer's name is mentioned because he begged Deana not to mention his name, for he would be ashamed to meet his friends after having been a party to such disgraceful proceedings. Deana was sentenced to receive two hundred lashes, and had not a Captain Hargrave, formerly in the 15th Hussars, who knew the good character of the prisoner, interfered for him, he would have received the two hundred. As it was, he was taken out, and in his sickly state, received one hundred lashes. He got into a fever, and was insensible for twelve days The poor man, when returning to consciousness, was asked by his disconsolate wife if he recollected having been flogged; at which his horror at the punishment, knowing he had done no wrong, led him to declare that had it not been for his wife, he would have destroyed himself there and then.
About a month after this, when he had to some degree recovered, a guard of six men was sent to bring him out of the town to the village of Arangues, six miles from Vittoria, where the Lancers were quartered. The poor persecuted object was a shadow of death. He trembled on his emaciated limbs, and his back was still a blister of raw wounds. His wife was assisting to lead him along when Captain Cunningham, a brave and humane officer, met them. He expressed surprise at seeing a man in such a state come out of bed; and gave him permission, by his order, to return to Vittoria. The sick man was not able to return, but sat down amongst the sleety snow of January, on the road side, (the accompanying soldiers being sent on to Arangues by Captain Cunningham.)
Night was falling on the wife and her sick husband - the dull dreary road was losing all its straggling passengers - and the hour when the wandering Carlist bands or guerrilla peasants - came prowling around for plunder - had set in on them.
At a distance the sound of horse's feet and voices were heard. These approached, and proved to be Captain H--y and two or three other officers. Deana was ordered to get up from where he lay, and go on. He told the officers of the state he was in; and his wife begged in tears to have some assistance for her husband and to be permitted to return with him to the town of Vittoria. H--y swore that if she did go back herself to the town and leave her husband to do duty with his regiment he would cut her to pieces with his sword; at the same time dismounting and taking hold of Deana (who had risen to his feet as well as he was able in order to salute his brutal superior) shook him - pushing him across the road - backwards and forwards, whilst the poor woman kept the feeble man from falling, and the blood and matter, by the violence done to his wounds, was oozing through his shirt and jacket.
They were forced onwards, and coming at last to Arangues, joined the regiment. Forced to lay down on the cold clay floor of a dilapidated house, the next morning found Mrs. Deana in a fever, which led to delirium, and she did not recover for almost two months. Her husband was in the greatest agony, his jacket adhering to his shirtless back, not able to move himself; and no person and no ointment to dress his wounds.
They returned to Vittoria - and after many hardships they both recovered - marched to San Sebastian - and where he had an opportunity of greatly distinguishing himself in the various actions with the enemy....
The Lancers, like many others, had originally signified their strong determination to serve not more than one year. A regimental order was issued by Colonel Wakefield for all those who wished to retire at the end of one year to give in their names. More than one-half of the Lancers recorded their names as desired by their Colonel. They were taken into San Sebastian, and after a few days a General Court-martial was assembled in Misericorda Hospital, a place where the 8th Infantry was also then quartered, outside the town, and was about to try the Lancers who had given in their names in compliance with the regimental order, for mutiny. An aggravation of the charge against them arose however, from their refusing to march out of the town.
Their year had expired, and they were resolved not to go to San Sebastian. They were marched to the gate, Captain H--y's troop being in front. They had formed four deep, and on coming to the gate, the four right hand men in front stood still. Any of the others would have done the same, but this, accidentally of course, caused these four to be marked as ring leaders. These were a Corporal Montgomery (formerly a Scotch Grey) David Tobin, Alexander Pearson, and Deana. It was then ordered that a regiment of infantry should be brought in to march the Lancers out as prisoners. The 7th and 9th Infantry were thought of, but these regiments, knowing the nature of the business and being resolved not to serve any longer themselves, absolutely refused to march one step towards San Sebastian.
The 6th and 8th Scotch were also in a state of mutiny at the time - they could not be depended upon; the other regiments were on duty, except the 10th Irish, and that corps being at a distance, where nothing of the mutiny was known at the time, four companies came ready primed and loaded, and marched out the four prisoners to be tried. (The names of the members of the Court are shown, and included Captain H--y.)
The men were sentenced to receive, Montgomery and Pearson, five hundred lashes each; Deana and Tobin, three hundred lashes. Though a form of court-martial had been gone through, yet the men had been, in common with most court-martials, condemned before they were tried, for all the flogging apparatus had been brought out and put in readiness before the trial had commenced.
The result was that the 8th turned lawlessly out, overset the tables, and put a stop to the proceedings; and it was not considered prudent to put the floggings into operation. The men returned peaceably to their duties, and the action of the 1st of October was fought.
Here Deana distinguished himself gallantly on that day, was immediately promoted to Sergeant, and the first general order which it fell to his turn to write in the order book of his troop was one stating that the services of Captain H--y of the 1st Lancers had been dispensed with, and that he was cashiered from the service. And for what - Being absent from the engagement without leave. [See Hely's Campaign Service, in which he claims to have taken part in this action.] Fit termination for such services as his had been...
Mrs Deana, by her frugality and great industry, had saved a considerable amount of money whilst in the Legion, and with her husband, is now in a profitable business in East Street, Walworth, London...
Deserters
It would not be doing justice to the character of H--y nor to the men who suffered under him, were I not to mention some other instances attending his mis-Conduct: not that I think it necessary to write more in proof of what he was, but to show what such overbearing officers may do to injure a regiment - or even an army.<.p>
Men, galled to desperation under him, deserted to the enemy. One day a sergeant and six men were on picquet, and rode across the lines to the Carlists, (all are named in the text.) They got safely across to the Carlist country and received sixty dollars for the horses and arms, that is, £13 sterling, a small sum for a horse, saddle, bridle, lance, sword, carbine, pistol, belts and ammunition, but a good sum for men who had not handled money for more than six months, and which could be possessed by riding half a mile; and with the chance of also getting home to their own country.
These men got safely home, as did most of those who deserted; the Carlists sending them into France, and the French sending them to England.
This desertion following close on some others, created much excitement amongst the officers in superior command. It was alleged that Captain H--y's treatment of the men was the cause. A Court-of-Enquiry, although not a regular one, was appointed to enquire into the truth of these allegations, at which the Captain was himself present.
The enquiry proceeded by the men being asked severally in his presence if he had ill-treated them, They all, as might have been expected, declined making any charge, believing it better to bear old insults than to provoke new ones by telling the truth."
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[Source: Alexander Somerville, "History of the British Legion, and War in Spain", London, 1839. Available in various formats
here... (accessed 10.2.2013. This includes an appendix listing all British soldiers in the Legion, "corrected to 1st April 1837".]
