Two officers serving in the 9th Light Dragoons were present at the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, one was Captain Lord Lord John George Lennox, the other was Lieutenant Henry Webster. He was born in 1793, the second son of Sir Godfrey Webster 4th Bt. His mother was a Whig hostess, Elizabeth Vassall, daughter of Richard Vassall of Jamaica. She had an affair with Henry Fox, Lord Holland, so that she and Sir Godfrey divorced. She married secondly, Lord Holland in 1797, and after Sir Godfrey died in 1800, Henry Vassall Webster came under the guardianship of his step-father, Lord Holland, and his mother, now Lady Holland.
Young Henry was commissioned into the King’s Dragoon Guards on 27 Mar 1810. He purchased the rank of lieutenant on 13 June 1811 and soon transferred to the 9th Light Dragoons. The portrait was painted in 1812, showing him wearing the uniform of the 9th. He was with his new regiment in the Peninsula. A letter from Lt-Col the Hon F C Ponsonby, commanding officer of the 12th Light Dragoons, written on 21 Nov 1812 to his sister-in-law, Lady Duncannon, from Cuidad Rodrigo, says,
‘Pray, tell Lord Holland that young Webster is a very fine fellow and is quite well; what gives me a good opinion of him is that he was in high spirits the other day when everybody else was croaking, and altho as miserable as anybody else, he seemed to make the best of a bad job and when that is the case a man will always get on well.’
During the Waterloo campaign he served as an extra ADC to the Prince of Orange. His name appears on the invitation list of the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball. Webster was made a Knight of the Order of Wilhelm of the Netherlands for his service at Waterloo. He was on the half pay list for much of his subsequent career. He attained the rank of major on 22 April 1826, and lieutenant-colonel on 9 Aug 1831. He was married to Grace Boddington, but it seems that he was unable to maintain his ‘high spirits’ because he killed himself on 19 April 1847.
The portrait, by Martin Archer Shee, depicts him wearing the blue and silver Officer’s Jacket c1810 of the 9th but with a red waistcoat instead of the attractive buff waistcoat decorated with silver braid. Behind him is the gold laced shako introduced in 1812 to replace the light dragoon helmet. This can be seen on the Mounted Officer 1813. The painting is in the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.
