Item Details: miniature portrait bust, framed behind glass with loop for hanging. Artist unknown.
About the Item
This miniature portrait is a copy of the original, showing Wade in the uniform of an officer in the 25th Regiment, in which he served before transferring to the Experimental Corps of Riflemen in 1800.
Portrait miniatures were often fitted into lockets, watch-covers, or pieces of jewellery to be carried about. This one is framed behind glass, with a loop for hanging.
About Hamlet Wade
In 1800, after Colonel Coote Manningham and Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable William Stewart presented a formal representation to the Government, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen was established. Its first expedition took the Corps to Spain; from there it proceeded to Malta, where all men whose regiments formed part of the expedition were ordered to rejoin them, and those whose regiments did not were attached to units serving with the force.
When its commanding officers returned to England, the Corps was promptly re-formed in August 1800. Among the two Majors appointed at this time was Hamlet Wade, who had been promoted from Captain in the 25th Foot.
Wade’s character and abilities were vividly captured in The History of the Rifle Brigade:
“He was an extraordinary, gallant, dashing Irishman (he was one of the Wades of Clonabraney, County Meath), and anecdotes of him were still rife when I was in the Regiment… He was an admirable shot with the rifle himself.”
His skill with the rifle was well known. Regimental stories recount that he and John Spurry, a private soldier, would take turns holding a target for the other to hit at a distance of 200 yards. As William Cope related, again in The History of the Rifle Brigade:
“There used to be a story of him at an inspection by the old Earl of Chatham, who expressed a wish to see some practice with the rifle; and having made some remark on the danger of the markers, Wade said: ‘There is no danger;’ and calling one of the men (no doubt Smeaton or Spurry), bade him hold a target, and he himself taking a rifle fired and hit it. Lord Chatham’s horror at this was extreme, on which Wade said: ‘Oh, we all do it.’ And bidding the other to take a loaded rifle, he ran out himself and held the target for the soldier’s fire. Probably no other men in the Regiment but themselves could have done this.”
Wade was also remembered as an eccentric figure. The following anecdote appears in The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej:
“So dark and intricate was the road we were moving on, I proposed to the General to form up, and see that our troops were all right. After the two first Battalions formed, I waited a short time in expectation of the next, the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. I hallooed, seeing no column, when a voice a long way off answered. It was that of the most extraordinary character, the eccentric Colonel Wade. I galloped up, and said, “Colonel, form up your Battalion, so soon as you reach the Brigade.” “By Jesus,” he said, “we are soon formed; I and my bugler are alone.” I, naturally somewhat excited, asked, “Where’s the Regiment?” ” Upon my soul, and that’s what I would like to ask you.” I then saw some mistake must have happened. I galloped back in the dark to the bridge, saw no column whatever, but heard voices far beyond the bridge. The column, after passing it in the dark, had discovered the error and were coming back.”
Having commanded the 2nd Battalion, 95th Rifles several times, including at Corunna, Lt. Col. Hamlet Wade retired from the Army in 1815 and died in London on 13th February 1821.
