Lieutenant-General Sir John Elley MP KCB KCH KMT and KSG, Governor of Galway and Colonel of the 17th Lancers (died 23 January 1839) was a British cavalry officer who fought with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars. Harry Smith remembered Sir John as his mentor in this extract from his autobiography: "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.

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  • Lieutenant-General Sir John Elley MP KCB KCH KMT and KSG, Governor of Galway and Colonel of the 17th Lancers (died 23 January 1839) was a British cavalry officer who fought with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars. Harry Smith remembered Sir John as his mentor in this extract from his autobiography: "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!" - Biographical information about Sir John is scarce, perhaps partly because of his humble origins. John Elley was born in London, circa 1770. His father ran an eating-house at Furnival's Inn. Apprenticed to Mr. John Gelderd, a tannery owner of the village of Meanwood near Leeds, Yorkshire, he became engaged to his masters daughter Anne. After her untimely death, he enlisted, in 1789, as a trooper in the Oxford Blues seeing service in Flanders (1793-95) India (1790s), the Peninsula War and the Battle of Waterloo. He obtained a Lieutenancy in 1796, a Troop in 1799, was promoted to Major in 1804, Lieutenant Colonelin 1808 and Colonel in 1813. He became a Major General in 1819 and a Lieutenant General in 1832. One famous act of heroism occurred at the Battle of Talavera (1809), as he lead 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... " -
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  • Lieutenant-General Sir John Elley MP KCB KCH KMT and KSG, Governor of Galway and Colonel of the 17th Lancers (died 23 January 1839) was a British cavalry officer who fought with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars. Harry Smith remembered Sir John as his mentor in this extract from his autobiography: "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.
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  • John Elley
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