Extracts from Brief Memoir of the late Lt. Col. Sir Thomas Noel Harris, by Clement B. Harris (his grandson), London 1893.
Thomas Noel Harris was born on 9 October 1783, son of the Revd. Hamlyn Harris, vicar of Exton, near Oakham and later rector of Whitwell (Rutland) and vicar of Campden, Gloucestershire.
He was educated at Uppingham School and in February of 1801 was commissioned an Ensign in the 87th Foot. He became a Lieutenant in the 52nd in 1802, in the 25th Foot in 1804 and in which regiment he became a Captain. In 1808 he had transferred into the 7th Fusiliers and later in the same year to the 1st Dragoons: but, after a few days on the roll of that regiment, he sold his commission at his father's wish following the death of Thomas's only brother, Henry. An officer in the service of the East India Company, Henry had been captured and murdered by bandits in Burma, "in circumstances of peculiar atrocity", being flayed alive.
In 1811 the lure of a military career proved too strong however and the Revd. Harris procured for his son a cornetcy in the 13th Light Dragoons. [The Regimental History of the 13th Light Dragoons confirms this but states that "he did not join", from which he returned to his old regiment, the 18th Light Dragoons (Hussars) being a Lieutenant in August of 1811 and to Captain in June of 1814.]
During the Peninsular War he served at Fuentes De Onoro, Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, being twice wounded by a sabre-cut on the forehead, and at Badajos, where his knee was hit by a stone splinter. In 1813, as ADC to Sir Charles Stewart (British representative with the Allied Armies in Germany) he was attached to Bernadotte's headquarters and was present at Grossbeeren, Dennewitz and Leipzig: and from the entry into France he served with Blucher's headquarters. "Most active and intrepid in all his duties" (according to Stewart) he served with St. Priest at Rheims (where he charged with the Prussian cavalry): and was the first Allied officer to report the presence of the French at La Fere Champenoise, discovered whilst scouting with a Cossack patrol.
Harris was selected for the honour of bearing to England on the 13th of March 1814 the despatch announcing the fall of Paris - an honour which almost cost him his life.
After evading the French, he was attacked by Cossacks who mistook him for a French officer: his "military collar" turned a slash against his neck, and his hat was cut to pieces before his Russian escort intervened (resulting in his arrival in London wearing "a common Dragoon's foraging cap")
As the bearer of the despatch, Harris became a celebrity, meeting the Prince Regent and dining with Lord Liverpool, and being reported widely in the Press; but he soon afterwards rejoined Stewart. For his services he received the Prussian "Pour le Merite (a singular distinction for an Englishman and which he wore when travelling on the Continent later in life "attracting salutes from every Prussian soldier he passed.") and the 4th Class Orders of St. Vladimir and St. Anne of Russia and after Waterloo, the 4th Class Order of Wilheim from Holland. He was promoted to a company of the York Chasseurs: then to the 236th Foot, serving as ADC in Ireland until the renewal of hostilities. From March of 1815 he was serving in the 1st Dragoon Guards and on 1st of April 1815 he was appointed Brigade-Major to Sir Hussey Vivian, 6th Cavalry Brigade.
A Brigade Major (or "Major of Brigade") was the only full-time staff officer serving at Brigade level, the liaison between the brigade commander and general headquarters - an indispensable function filled by a Captain or Major.
"The detail of the Duty of the Brigade rests entirely on the Brigade Major. He is considered an Officer attached to the Brigade, not personally to the Officer commanding it. His Station on a March is in front of the leading Regiment of the Brigade; he is to encamp in the rear of the centre of the Brigade. The Brigade Major is to be constantly In the Lines of the Camp of the Brigade. Majors of Brigade are, as soon as possible, to notify their General's Quarters at Headquarters. It is the business of the Brigade Major to call in the Guards belonging to the Brigade previous to Marching. No Officer of the rank under the rank of a General Officer, unless he commands the Brigade (The Adjutant-General excepted) has any right to give directions to the Major of Brigade on a General Parade, or to interfere with any Party he is parading, till the Major of Brigade delivers it over to the Officer who is to command it."
These duties were as dangerous as they were important, as it proved at Waterloo. Out of 14 Brigade-Majors present at the battle, only six came through unscathed.)
Thomas Noel Harris was one of those who attended the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels on the eve of Quatre Bras, where, handsome and distinguished, he apparently cut a dashing figure.
During the battle Harris was under fire for much of the day, having two horses shot under him, but was unhurt until the final advance. Sergeant Matthew Colgan, "coverer" of Captain George Luard, who commanded the centre squadron of the 18th Hussars, recalled how the regiment sat chafing with inaction under a galling fire, until Harris rode up and exclaimed: "18th! You are about to charge: the General trusts to past experience that you will act as soldiers, and I know you will, 18th." He then led a squadron in the charge of Vivian's Brigade from the Mont St. Jean ridge through the centre of the French positions.
As he charged a body of infantry, Harris was struck by a musket ball which pierced his right side, and by a grapeshot which shattered his right arm, It is reasonable to suppose that the units he attacked were part of the Imperial Guard and the ball which struck Harris probably came from the 2/1st Chasseurs, the nearest unit.
The injuries were severe, but Harris somehow survived the ordeal of lying out all night on the field and was found early the next morning by his cousin, Clement Wallington of the 10th Hussars and Sir Hussey Vivian, who had set out to look for him. Unable to speak, Harris attracted their attention by a low whistle. They carried him to the nearest dressing station at Hougoumont, where his coat was cut off, the sleeve being slit up through the shoulder and the collar [see note below].
His right arm was amputated immediately: an operation he bore with fortitude, even remarking to the surgeon as the limb was being carried away that as he had been acquainted with it for so long, he wished to shake hands with the severed arm, "once more before parting."
From Hougoumont he was taken to Brussels in a cart, (Wallington supporting Harris's head on his knees to alleviate the worst of the jolting) and was billeted in the house of a Belgian lady. "It is, indeed, a blessing to have such a nurse as I have: she has scarcely left my room", he wrote ten days later. Though he mistakenly reported that the ball is out of my body," it was apparently thought too dangerous to extract, and was the cause of considerable suffering in later years.
As soon as he was able, Harris rejoined his Brigade in Paris, where Blucher (his friend from 1813-1814) was shocked by his appearance. Embracing him, the old Prussian remarked. "Ach, mein lieber Harris, I do complain you much," in characteristically bad English. So highly did he regard Harris that Blucher gave him a portrait of himself, a lock of hair, three feathers from his hat and even the gold ring which he often wore.
Harris was granted a pension of ££200 p.a. in respect of his incapacity through injury: and received from Hussey Vivian, on behalf of the Brigade, a two-handled gold loving cup, two and three-quarter pounds in weight, and engraved, "Presented, 6th October 1815. To Captain Thomas Noel Harris. Brigade Major to the Hussars. By a Few Friends as a Mark of the Respect and Admiration they entertain for his gallantry during the most glorious Campaigns in which Great Britain ever engaged."
In October of 1815 he was appointed to a Troop in the 1st Dragoon Guards, but filled the remainder of his career in staff duties, both at home and abroad, on to Half-pay as Major, 14th of March 1817, Lieut. Colonel, 13th of February 1823, as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (un-attached) in Canada from the 22nd of July 1823, created a KCH in 1832. and finally retiring in 1838 after a spell as the Chief Magistrate of Gibraltar. (The Army Lists do not show him after 1835).
Despite his injuries, Harris remained remarkably active: a superb carriage driver, he continued to hunt regularly, and to shoot left-handed with light guns: and even saved himself from drowning by swimming two miles to Portsmouth after his yacht sank. He was a renowned raconteur, with a fund of anecdotes: and continued to practice his doubtless irritating trick of unhorsing people by putting his hand under their foot and tipping them out of the saddle.
A Deputy Lieutenant for Kent, he lived in retirement to see a son killed in a naval accident, a step-son killed with the 17th Lancers in the Charge of the Light Brigade, a stepson serving with the King's Dragoon Guards in the Indian Mutiny; two grandsons fighting in the Crimea (one of whom was to reach the rank of Major-General), a third to become a Commander, RN: and - with the greatest satisfaction - his grandson, Hamlyn, commissioned into the 18th Hussars.
>The bullet lodged near his spine caused him much distress in his later years, though his humour and capacity for the enjoyment of life remained unimpaired.
Even in old age, "he was upright and well built... and was as handsome an old man as I ever saw, and certainly the best-tempered, under all the suffering he found it impossible to conceal." On the 18th of June every year he gathered his relatives and friends around him to celebrate the anniversary of Waterloo.
On the 23rd of March 1860, he died at Updown House, Eastry, Kent, and was buried amid four yew trees in the churchyard of St. George the Martyr at Ham. A stained glass window in St. Lawrence's Church, Isle of Thanet, commemorates this gallant officer, 'who served and bled for his country in the glorious campaigns.'
He was said to have been married three times, his first wife being Mary Thomson (nee White).
In his will, however, made on the 10th of February 1855, the witnesses being John Soden, Surgeon, Bath, and William Ford, Butler, Updown House, he left "all the real estate of which I may be possessed at the time of my decease to my wife, Mary Harris and I bequeath all the residue of my personal estate and effects which shall remain after the payment of my just debts and funeral and testamentary expenses unto my said wife absolutely and to her heirs and assignees for ever."
He made no individual bequests to others of his family or friends, his personal estate being shown as "less than £6,000". Probate of his estate was made on the 29th of April 1860 to his widow, Dame Mary Harris, which refutes the story that she was his first wife.
[PB: I'm not always clear which of the above is from the original and which are EJB's interpolations. Also, I'm unclear what is meant by "refutes the story that she was his first wife".]
Note:
[1994?] His coat was first known of when it was intended to be offered at a Wallis and Wallis auction at Lewes, Sussex, by a militaria dealer, but was bought privately before this took place.
This coat was known to be in a English collection of militaria in 1994 and bears all the marks of its known history, including the exit hole of the grape-shot which smashed his right arm, and the bullet wound on the right side level with the fifth button. The collar is distorted due to being cut through on the right side, completing the cut up the sleeve and through the shoulder to allow the coat to be removed in the dressing station at Hougoumont. Even on the scarlet cloth, the massive blood staining is also evident from the differing shades of red. The coat also still shows mud-stains from his night lying out on the battle-field.
Now also with the coat is the Waterloo medal awarded to Sergeant Matthew Colgan of the 18th Hussars, who had, before his death, sent it to Thomas Harris, the latter having given the sergeant some financial help at a critical time.]