John Bringhurst, born c1786, was from Woodstone, Huntingdon. He joined the King’s Dragoon Guards in 1806 and served in the Peninsula War and at the Battle of Waterloo where he was killed. He was ADC to Major-General Sir Henry Fane and took part in 7 campaigns. A member of the regiment, Lt John Hibbert mentions him when he wrote about the regiment’s losses in the battle on 18 June 1815:
‘This time last year in Ireland before the reductions, we mustered in the field eleven hundred men - a thousand effective. Now the whole Regiment cannot muster three hundred including the depot, and about two hundred and fifty horses, and all our best and worthiest officers who were the most respected and like in the Regiment, are all killed; in fact the Regiment will never be what it was. Colonel Fuller and the adjutant Captain Battersby, Majors Graham and Bringhurst, and Lieutenant Brooke were all thrown into one grave and buried by the 32nd Regiment. Young Bernard’s body could not be found, but we know pretty well what became of him; he was taken prisoner after having been wounded, and not being able to keep up with the French, they killed him on the road. They served a great many English officers in the same way.’
A memorial plaque to Major Bringhurst is on the wall of the St-Joseph Church at Waterloo. There are also memorial plaques for Colonel William Fuller and Captain George Battersby. The Bringhurst plaque states that: ‘He was buried on the spot where he fell near the west entrance of the farm of La Haye Sainte.’ He left a widow, Frances Maria Bringhurst, and a daughter, Maria Jane.
The photo of John Bringhurst as a captain is taken from ‘Waterloo Uniforms. 1. British Cavalry’ by John Mollo (1973)
