WELLINGTON IN HASTINGS & RYE by Brion Purdey

An example of a very rare species arrived in the military district of Hastings and Rye in the early Spring of 1806 - a successful British General! In fact it is fair to say that at the time Sir Arthur Wellesley was the only really successful general officer that his country possessed and the posting to the coast of eastern Sussex of this phenomenon needs to be explained. Following the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens and resumption of hostilities with France, the south east counties of England, and particularly Kent and Susex, were once more in the front line facing a threatened invasion.

In 1803 that great martial genius, Napoleon Bonaparte, soon to crown himself Emperor, had gathered a massive force ofd 130,000 men at Boulogne, together with 2,000 boats and this Grand Army continued to grow throughout 1804. In Britain there waas some apprehension, though not the flight in panic of the population of the two counties described with such delight in the contemorary French press. Preperations for defence were undertaken, of course, and Bonaparte's most implacable foe in Europe, William Pitt, Prime Minister and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, was personally involved in much of the detail, often from his official residence at Walmer Castle. The Royal Military Canal, "Mr. Pitt's Ditch", was dug, stretching eventually from Hythe to Cliff End, Pett, and Martello Towers were erected - but not with quite the speed that the situation seemed to demand, and naval and military volunteers were raised to support the regular forces of the Crown.

The Commander in Chief, the "Grand old Duke of York" , visited Hastings in August 1804 accompanied by Sir John Moore, officer commanding the troops based from Shorncliffe to Dungerness and they saw the main threat to be a landing between Dungerness and Beachy Head. An interesting change in the pattern of military deplyments took place as a result of this view. Earlier invasion scares in the 1790's had found the full time professional soldiery quartered further east and to the west of this area, around Canterbury and Brighton, but now the rapidly raised and less well trained militia that had previously guarded Rye and Hastings were replaced by regiments of regulars who had some knowledge of the business of war.

It is not surprising, therefore, that, even after Nelson's comprehensive destruction of the bulk of the sea power of France and her allies at Trafalgar in October 1805, the government should dispatch a general with a proven record of vixtory in India to this crucial section of the coastline. Wellesley's force, to which he was appointed on the 25th of February 1806, was a mere brigade, however, and many friends questionedhow the general, having led "armies of 40,000 men in the field, having received the thanks of Parliament for his victories and having been made a Knight of the Bath, could submit to be reduced to the command of a brigade if infantry?" Sir Arthur's answer was typical of the man. "For this plain reason, I am a nimmukwallah as we say in the east, that is have ate the King's salt and therefore I conceive it to be my duty to serve with unhesitating zeal and cheerfulness, when and wherever, the King or his government may think proper to employ me"