Captain William Usher:  Trafalgar Cemetery

 

        

 

 Behind every gravestone in Trafalgar Cemetery there lies a human story of which we frequently know little or nothing. Sometimes the inscriptions provide some insight to the final demise of the person they commemorate. We read; succumbed to yellow fever, died of wounds, etc.  Captain William Usher’s stone gives no such information. It honours his achievements and displays the esteem of his brother officers… but that’s all.

"Sacred To the Memory of William Usher Esq. Late Captain of His Majesty's 64th Reg of Foot who by his Conduct in Several actions in the West Indies not only Derived Credit  to Himself but did Honour to the Service to which he was Employed. Brave, Generous, Humane whilst living, he Obtained what he Most Justly Merited, the High Esteem of his Brother Officers and the Fond Respect of Those Entrusted to His Command. Hastened to an Early Grave, his Country is left to Lament The Loss of an Excellent Officer and Society that of an Honest Man. He Departed this life on the 29th Day of March 1796 in the 25th year of his Age.'

Below in smaller script:

As a Small Tribute of Regard to the Memory of so Worthy a man, this Stone is Erected by the 64th Regt. Jointly with The Officers of the Garrison at Gibraltar.'

The use of capitals to emphasise significant words was very typical in 1796.

In fact, Captain Usher had been buried in St Jago’s and his stone was removed to this cemetery in 1932. So what happened to bring him to an early death; well, we will find out, but first let’s find out a bit more about this young man.

The Usher family, more correctly Ussher, were an Anglo-Irish, landed family who claimed descent from Gilbert de Nevill, Admiral of William the Conqueror’s fleet, in 1066. The change of name from Nevill to Ussher came about in the reign of Henry II when John Nevill, who was Huissier,  or usher, to the King’s son Prince John, adopted the name Ussher from the office he held. Whatever their origins, in the 14^th century, John le Uscher was made Constable of Dublin Castle by Edward 1st and became the progenitor of a list of distinguished Ushers including a founder of Trinity College Dublin and Protestant Primate of all Ireland, a Mayor of Dublin, a Royal Astronomer and Captain Arthur Ussher, a veteran of nine campaigns under Marlborough, who gained fame for killing his Colonel in a duel, for which he was later acquitted by the Duke.

The family seat was at Ballyntaylor, in Dungarvan, County Waterford, built in 1619.  It had considerable plantations of timber trees, besides large adjacent woods, and no doubt a host of impoverished tenants. It was fairly typical of most Anglo-Irish landowners. (The ‘plantation’ of Ireland, beginning in the 16C, involved confiscation of Irish owned land by the English Crown and colonisation with Protestant settlers from England; hence the Anglo-Irish. The purpose was to control, anglicise and ‘civilise’ parts of Ireland; generating resentment that continues to this day.)

It was to Ireland that the 64^th Regt. of Foot was deployed in 1784. After fighting in the American War, the Regiment served in the West Indies (82-83) before spending a decade in the Emerald Isle.

A famous regiment and the offer of adventure appealed to William and his younger brother Thomas. Since, in those days, it was customary to buy your commission, before they knew it they were off to the West Indies.

 

                 This is how William may have looked as an Ensign in the 64th.

The 64^th formed part of a 1794 expedition of 6500 men led by Lt. General Sir Charles Grey, despatched to seize the French islands of Martinique (birthplace of Napoleon’s 1^st wife Josephine) St Lucia and Guadeloupe. Charles (no flint) Grey had developed a fearsome reputation in the American War for allegedly instructing his men to remove their flints and use bayonets for a surprise night attack on the Continental Army. He was of course, protecting against any flash giving away their position to the enemy.

He used similar tactics in the islands, abandoning the conventional image of a two deep British line delivering massed volleys at point blank range. His troops were instructed to operate in open order, in silence and at bayonet point; all attacks went in with unloaded muskets. Most of the heavy fighting was undertaken by converged flank battalions, grenadiers and light infantrymen, assembled under hand-picked officers and used as storm troopers in every major assault. Sir Charles Grey was one of the most aggressive British generals of the era.

 In November 1793, the Regiments had embarked for the West Indies in a fleet of five frigates and three ships of the line under John Jervis, Earl St Vincent; well known to us in Gibraltar. We don’t know how many men the 64^th had embarked at Spithead, but by February ’94 just 150 men and 8 officers of the centre company were fit for duty, some 274 being recorded as sick… and this was before the rigours of the campaign and yellow fever took their toll.

Landing first at Barbados, they transhipped to smaller, largely flat bottomed craft, to launch their first assault. Between February and March 24^th, when the 64^th took their final objective, Fort Bourbon, Martinique, they had just 42 men fit for duty. In a few months of campaign the original force of 6,500 had lost 92 men in battle and 5000 from disease. The yellow fever had taken their Commanding Officer Major Compton, Lt Col. Richard Buckeridge and Ensign Thomas Paul Usher, William’s younger brother.

 

            Men of the 64^th (2nd Staffordshire) after capturing Fort Louis, Martinique 1794

 

William Usher had performed well, perhaps not well enough for official recognition, but earning promotion and becoming highly regarded by his brother officers. A year later he and his regiment were assigned to garrison duty in Gibraltar and within a further year, William would be dead…. killed here in a duel.

The circumstances were reported in the Dublin newspapers:

“Major Oswald and Captain Usher of the 64^th Regiment, hearing the sounds of music and dancing in a tavern, entered it unthinkingly, and offered to join in the dance. Among the persons assembled were several officers of the navy, who, in terms no the mildest, refused to admit these gentlemen among them; and added that it was a private party that ought not to have been intruded upon. The Major and his companion withdrew; observing at the same time, that the Officers of the Garrison had freely and politely admitted the Gentlemen of the Navy into their assemblies. After they had left the house, they were followed by ten or twelve of the persons with whom this conversation passed, who, on coming up with them, knocked down Captain Usher and afterwards Major Oswald. Reports were made next day, by both parties, to the Governor, and no formal measure having been taken in consequence of such reports, Major Oswald and Captain Usher sent messages to two Pursers of the Navy, who were the most ostensible of the assailants.”

“Major Oswald and his adversary fired three shots without effect; Captain Usher, unfortunately fell the first shot, the ball entering his head killed him on the spot. The Governor, to mark his disapprobation of duels on any account, ordered that the funeral should be conducted without military honours. Captain Usher having been deservedly esteemed by the whole garrison, this order was received with dissatisfaction and obeyed with manifest regret. The morning after his interment, the officers all appeared at parade with black crepes, and among others Colonel Lennox. Whether any notice was privately taken by the Governor of this mourning parade, we cannot say, but certain it is that no notice was taken of it publickly and the Governor continued his usual rounds of invitations to the several officers.”

The Governor was, of course, General Charles O’Hara, nicknamed Cock-of-the-Rock, for the attention he paid to other peoples’ wives. He had children by two mistresses in Gibraltar and was apparently ‘a complete stranger to matters of honour’. He is now chiefly remembered for his observation tower at the southern summit of the Rock, known as O’Hara’s folly.

Now, the story of this young man’s death in a duel has finally been exposed, despite the efforts of the then Governor. No doubt there are a few more stories waiting to be unearthed from Trafalgar Cemetery.

 

                                     

 

     First published at Gibraltar History Society Chronicle March 2022  Paul Hodkinson.