On 17 June 1815, just one day before the Battle of Waterloo, the 1st Life Guards hurled themselves into battle at the Belgian village of Genappe, fighting a savage rearguard action that rescued their comrades of the 7th Hussars and 23rd Light Dragoons from French lancers. Their timely intervention successfully threw back the French cavalry pursuing the Anglo-Allied army as it marched towards its final confrontation with Napoleon.

The Retreat to Waterloo

Following the Battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny on 16 June, the Duke of Wellington ordered his army to withdraw towards Waterloo. The move served two vital purposes: preventing Napoleon from threatening Brussels and establishing a strong defensive position where the Prussians under Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher, although driven back at Ligny, could regroup and join forces with the Anglo-Allied army.

At the Emperor’s command, Marshal Ney, the French commander at Quatre Bras, ordered his cavalry to pursue the withdrawing British to stop them linking up with the Prussians. The Household Brigade rode through the village of Genappe and took position on the brow of a hill overlooking Genappe. As they waited, the Life Guards saw the 7th Hussars and the 23rd Light Dragoons (two light cavalry regiments who’d been screening the withdrawal from Quatre Bras against probing French attacks on the rearguard) pouring out of Genappe in utter chaos, with a regiment of French lancers in hot pursuit. 

The 7th Hussars had been caught by surprise and, despite a spirited resistance, had been overwhelmed. The Earl of Uxbridge, commander of the British cavalry, had ordered the 23rd Light Dragoons forward to support them. However, they had been slow to engage and, once committed to the fight, discovered that their cavalry swords were ill-matched against the reach and effectiveness of the French lances.

The Deadly Lance

British cavalry lance circa 1820. The deadly effectiveness with which the French cavalry wielded these weapons at Waterloo led the British Army to start equipping some of their own cavalry regiments with lances. (National Army Museum)

The lance proved devastatingly effective throughout the Waterloo campaign. French cavalry wielded the weapon with deadly skill at Quatre Bras, Ligny and Waterloo itself. Its success led to a resurgence of lance-armed cavalry across Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, including within the British Army.

Captain Edward Kelly's Charge

Seeing the danger, the Earl of Uxbridge rode directly to the 1st Life Guards and approached a troop commanded by Captain Edward Kelly. His order was simple: charge.

Kelly immediately led his men down the hill. As his trumpeter sounded the advance, the Life Guards thundered towards the French lancers, who were advancing confidently out of Genappe, emboldened by their success against the British light cavalry.

Watercolour by Richard Simkin depicting the charge of the 1st Life Guards at Genappe. (National Army Museum)

The ferocity of the charge caught the French completely by surprise.

Although the lancers fought back fiercely and inflicted casualties, the hand-to-hand fighting that followed that followed saw the 1st Life Guards drive them back through the village. When Kelly reformed his men in preparation for a second charge, the French cavalry broke and fled the field.

The effect was immediate. In the aftermath of the clash at Genappe, French cavalry became markedly more cautious in their pursuit of Wellington's retreating army.

Uxbridge later commended Kelly for his actions, famously remarking that the charge had "saved the honour of the British cavalry", a compliment Kelly was never reluctant to repeat when recounting his exploits after Waterloo.

In an interesting twist of fate, Kelly would later briefly command the 23rd Light Dragoons, one of the very regiments his actions had helped save at Genappe, before it was disbanded for the third and final time in 1817.

A Hero's Final Years

Painting of Captain Edward Kelly on display at the Household Cavalry Museum.

Despite his courage and success, Kelly's military career was effectively ended by wounds received at Waterloo the following day. Among his injuries was a glancing strike from a French cannonball that tore a large section from his leg.

Unable to continue active service, he transferred from the Life Guards and entered semi-retirement. He later served as an aide-de-camp to senior officers in Ireland and subsequently in India.

Captain Edward Kelly died of illness in India on 6 August 1828 at the age of 54.

Relics of Courage

Today, visitors to the Household Cavalry Museum can see several remarkable artefacts connected to Kelly's service during the Waterloo campaign.

Among them is a presentation sword featuring a mother-of-pearl grip and brass hilt, gifted to him by the soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the 1st Life Guards in recognition of his bravery at both Genappe and Waterloo.

Presentation sword gifted to Major Edward Kelly by the soldiers and NCOs of the 1st Life Guards in recognition of his bravery at Genappe and Waterloo.

The museum also displays the sword Kelly carried during the Battle of Waterloo itself - a weapon with which he reportedly slew Colonel Jean-Nicholas Habert of the 4th Cuirassiers in single combat - as well as hair from the tail of his favourite horse, the mare that carried him to safety despite suffering a mortal lance wound during the fighting.

Remembering Genappe

While Waterloo would eclipse almost every other action of the campaign, the fierce fighting at Genappe on 17 June 1815 played a vital role in ensuring Wellington's army reached its chosen battlefield intact.

The courage of Captain Edward Kelly and the 1st Life Guards not only rescued their fellow cavalrymen but also checked the momentum of the pursuing French cavalry at a critical moment. It was a small engagement by Waterloo standards, but one whose consequences echoed into the decisive battle that followed the very next day.