A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) — Context and Discussion

Archival Fragments and the Shipwreck of 1797

The preface establishes that the regiment's own records are “very scanty,” consisting of little more than an inaccurate summary from sixty years prior. Fortescue identifies the loss of regimental papers by shipwreck in 1797 as the cause for the absence of documents before that year, and also for the neglect to preserve records in subsequent decades. This forces him to seek information “almost exclusively from external sources.” The first three chapters draw on original documents from the Record Office—minutes of the Board of General Officers, muster-rolls, paysheets, inspection returns, and marching orders—alongside a mass of old drill-books and military treatises in the British Museum. The most important of these are Dalrymple's Military Essay, Bland's Military Discipline, and Hinde's Discipline of the Light Horse (1778). For the American War, he relies on original despatches, Tarleton's Memoirs, and Stedman's History of the American War, the last praised for its maps and plans. The West Indian campaigns are drawn from original despatches supplemented by pamphlets, while the Maroon War is treated with “great fulness” by Dallas in his History of the Maroons, with additional matter from Bridges' Annals of Jamaica and the works of Bryan Edwards.

The Pindari Campaign and the Death of Sergeant-Major Hampson

The excerpt from the Indian campaigns provides the most detailed narrative in the supplied text. Fortescue describes the Pindaris as “the best cavalry commanded by natives in India,” with 24 guns, and notes that by 1814 their numbers were reckoned at 27,000 men. The British were initially hampered by an engagement with Scindiah that prevented pursuit into Rajpoot territory. The capture of Bungapore brought matters to a crisis, leading to a treaty with Scindiah that was quickly betrayed. The Governor-General then surrounded the Pindari country with 80,000 men. The 17th Lancers were attached to a force under Sir W. Grant Keir, advancing from Bombay. On the second day's march, the rear-guard was attacked by Bheels, described as “diminutive and wretched looking” yet “active and capable of great fatigue.” A squadron of the 17th under Colonel Stanhope drove them off, but at the cost of Cornet Marriott and several men and horses wounded. Sergeant-Major Hampson received an arrow in the mouth, calmly plucked it out, drew his pistol, shot the Bheel, and then fell dead, choked by the flow of blood. This action won the regiment the thanks of the General in field orders. Fortescue notes the difficulty of tracing subsequent movements due to the impossibility of obtaining original despatches, and compares the work to what the regiment would experience in Central India forty years later: rapid movements, dearth of material, separation into detachments, and hard forced marches for weeks on end.

The Regiment as a Lens on Imperial Military Administration

Throughout the excerpts, Fortescue's method reveals the 17th Lancers as a case study in the challenges of writing military history from fragmentary official records. The shipwreck of 1797 is not merely a footnote but a structural determinant: it explains why the early chapters rely on drill-books and treatises rather than regimental correspondence. The author's repeated references to the “impossibility of getting at the original despatches” for the Indian campaign underscore the gaps that remain. Yet the narrative also shows how external sources can be woven into a coherent account: the muster-rolls, inspection returns, and marching orders provide the skeleton, while memoirs and pamphlets add colour. The death of Sergeant-Major Hampson, drawn from an official report or perhaps a letter, stands out as a moment of human detail amid the administrative prose. Fortescue's history thus functions as both a record of the regiment's actions and a demonstration of the historian's craft under archival constraints.

Readers interested in the mechanics of regimental history will find Fortescue's preface and source notes as revealing as the battle narratives. The work is best approached not as a continuous story but as a mosaic of official documents, with the shipwreck of 1797 as its hidden fault line. Pay attention to the footnotes and the author's asides about missing materials—they often say as much about the regiment as the events described.

There’s something tender about a regimental history pieced together after loss, isn’t there? I felt that with Fortescue’s Lancers, how a unit survives even its archives. It reminded me of the quiet patience in the Historical Record of the Thirty-fourth, or the Cumberland Regiment of Foot containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702 and of its subsequent — Context and Discussion, where similar echoes of ordinary bravery wait.