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Historical note: He was a British soldier who joined the cavalry as a private, and rose to general officer rank. He fought with distinction during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and later served as the last Governor of Galway and as Colonel of the 17th Lancers. One famous act of heroism occurred at the Battle of Talavera (1809), as he led the charge riding a white horse across unknown terrain. A chasm suddenly appeared before him and he was forced to jump it at full gallop. As he wrote in a letter to his sister Mrs Ellis, dated 30 July 1809? "More fire I was never in, nor more perils did I escape. I led on one Squadron to the Charge as a forlorn hope and out of 80 men I had not a dozen left ? a very severe List of Killed and Wounded you will see by the Gazette ? It will be great Satisfaction to my good old Father to Know that I had during the action a very conspicuous share, and in which I had the good Fortune to Succeed to the intense Satisfaction of the General Officers. At the state funeral of George IV on 15 July 1830 Elley was one of the group of senior Army and Naval officers who supported the canopy of purple velvet over the body of the King as it was taken to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, for the funeral service. Another incident at Waterloo is recorded on the escarpment of Mont-Saint-Jean, a ridge to the south of the village of Waterloo: "Sir John Elley, who led the charge of the heavy brigade, was himself distinguished for personal prowess. He was at one time surrounded by several of the cuirassiers; but, being a tall and uncommonly powerful man, completely master of his sword and horse, he cut his way out, leaving several of his assailants on the ground, marked with wounds, indicating the unusual strength of the arm which inflicted them. Indeed, had not the ghastly evidence remained on the field, many of the blows dealt upon this occasion would have seemed borrowed from the annals of knight-errantry, for several of the corpses exhibited heads cloven to the chine, or severed from the shoulders." AND a student to him Harry Smith said of him "The celebrated Cavalry officer, Sir John Elley, a very tall, bony, and manly figure of a man, with grim-visaged war depicted in his countenance, with whiskers, moustaches, etc. like a French Pioneer, came over to Dover during the time of our occupation of France. He was walking on the path, with his celebrated sword belted under his surtout. As the hooking up of the sword gave the coat-flap the appearance of having something large concealed under it, a lower order of Custom officer ran after him, rudely calling, "I say, you officer, you! stop, stop, I say! What's that under your coat?" Sir John turned round, and drawing his weapon of defence in many a bloody fight, to the astonishment of the John Bulls, roared out through his moustache in a voice of thunder, "That which I will run through your d?d guts, if you are impertinent to me!". Seller Inventory # 8514
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