Sir George de Lacy Evans

George de Lacy Evans (1787-1870) was born in Ireland and was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich (i.e. the training school for the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers and other technical corps) before heading off to India to join the army of the East India Company.  In 1806 he transferred to the British Army and secured a position in the 3rd Light Dragoons which enables him to serve in the Peninsular War.  Like a lot of British Auxiliary Legion officers, he was then transferred to America, where he served as quartermaster-general to General Robert Ross, who commanded the British troops in the US until his death in September 1814.  He appears to have been a staff officer at Waterloo, supposedly being the person who relayed to order to the Union Brigade to charge.

He then entered politics, and was a sitting MP for Rye when he was given command of the BAL.  His political career was resumed after the war ended, but he seems to have lost and regained his seat on numerous occasions.  In 1846 he was promoted to Major-General and then Lieutenant-General in 1854.  In that latter rank he participated in the Crimean War as the initial commander of the 2nd Division; however, he fell sick and had to relinquish command.  His political career continued - he was MP for Westminster from 1846-65 (Evans was a Radical) and consistently argued for reform of the Army, in particular the abolition of the purchase system.

His political career, especially as a Radical, no doubt contributed to the hostile treatment he and the BAL received in certain sections of the British press.  As I've noted elsewhere, the BAL fought under difficult conditions, often badly supplied and ignored by the British government. Evans seems to have been a thoughtful, competent officer, always fighting the authorities on behalf of his men; one sense the BAL could have done a lot worse in their commander.     

These figures are from two Perry packs - the Evans personality figure is from ISA2 and the foot figures are the rest of ISA37 (the mounted elements of which are here).  This command stand finishes off my most recent Carlist War stuff, save for a regiment of Isabelino cavalry, for which I need to get the correct lance pennants.     

3 figures. Painted August 2021.

Update

The past few weeks have flown past - too much work, lots of family birthdays, trying to manage without a kitchen (as it's being replaced), rushing the boys around to rugby games, cricket practice, martial arts (Hugo's trying for his black belt this summer); client dinners etc.  Hence the lack of posts, for which I'm sorry - I certainly hadn't intended the blog to go "dark" again. Happily, I have been painting in the meantime, and some wip shots are below.  But I wanted to add that for Christmas I treated myself to the newish "Two Thin Coats" paints designed by former GW "'Eaevy Metal" painting supremo.  I'm not quite sure when they came out - certainly in three "waves", funded by Kickstarters (which had all kinds of cool freebies, like a MDF holder for your mobile phone, presumably so you can watch Duncan's "how to" videos while you paint).  I love playing around with new paints, but gave into temptation when I saw that Sarissa sold the complete sets with a bespoke paint rack for each wave - see here).  

So above is a photo of my re-vamped painting set up.  I also invested in a couple of other MDF paint racks that I found on ebay, which has created a lot more space on my desk and helped me re-introduce a few paints that had been festering in drawers.  My paints are arranged by manufacturer, so: Citadel paints are on the racks at the back of my desk; Foundry paints are largely in drawers but also in the rack to the right of my desk (which also contains my small number of Vallejo paints); Army Painter are in their own small rack to the right and on the side table); and Two Thin Coats take up the rest of the side table.

To try out the Two Thin Coats range, I turned my attention some the Perry Napoleonic Ottomans that I was given for Christmas, as they didn't tie me to repetitive uniforms.  For the same reason, when I got bored of the Ottomans I turned to some North Star "Frostgrave" plastic figures.  Thoughts on the paints?  I'm not really used to dropper bottles and find that I am wasting a fair amount of paint once it's out on the palette.  But so far I've only had one of those "squeeze too hard and half the bottle pours out" moments.  The paints have two small ball bearings in them, which I guess helps keep the paint together.  Certainly the texture of the paint is excellent, and the coverage is very good - the reds and yellows usually provide full coverage in one go.  It's a triad-based system and I've found the 3 colours go well together - none of the extreme contracts that you can find in some Foundry palettes.  I haven't tried the washes, glazes, metals or "brights" yet.  Overall, I really like these paints.  Some of the names are a bit weird (e.g. what is "fury green") and other too easily reveal their GW/Citadel alternative (e.g. "warmaster green").  Buying these was a bit of an indulgence, but hey - you can never have too many paints.     

Below are some wip shots.  Since my return to AWI with the Hessian command figures last year, I've been building up my Napoleonic Ottoman force with infantry, a heavy artillery battery, and a first Mameluke unit.  I've also started on more AWI British infantry (and revisited an AWI loyalist "commission" for Bill Nevins); painted a pack of 20 Eureka Miniatures Maori warriors; and then a number of "Frostgrave" figures, both metal and plastics.  All these will have their own posts very shortly.  Finally, I've very sad to say that there will be no Salute report this year - I haven't missed the show for a good run of years (I reckon since this blog started), but this weekend I'm in sunny Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast for the boys' Chelmsford RFC annual tour - two days of rugby, silly games and the humiliation of parents.  I'd much rather be at Salute!       

And here are some "Frostgrave" wizards and knights, together with some Eureka Maori:

British Auxiliary Legion / Isabelino mounted officers

These are mounted officer figures from two Perry First Carlist War packs - two are from pack ISA37 (British Auxiliary Legion staff) and the third, on the grey, is a Spanish colonel from ISA2.  These aren't supposed to represent any particular people; they are just generic figures to use as brigade commanders.  The Duke of Wellington and the army command in general were opposed to officers on half-pay heading off, in effect, to act as mercenaries in a Spanish war.  So the commander of the British Legion, George de Lacy Evans, had to look to his army friends and soldiers in India to fill his senior appointments.  

Two of de Lacy Evans' friends who were given brigadier-general rank were Charles Chichester and William Reid, who otherwise had very little to do.  Chichester went on to command the 81st Foot in 1839 and died in 1847, apparently with a reputation as the best regimental commanding officer in the British army.  Reid became governor of Bermuda 1839 and of Malta in 1851.  Another brigadier was Duncan MacDougall, who had fought in most of the major battles of the Peninsular War and then in the War of 1812, in which he served as an ADC to Major-General Robert Ross and then Sir Edward Packenham after Ross was killed (Packenham was himself killed trying to rally his troops at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815).  He was colonel of the 79th Highlanders when he resigned in March 1835 to join the BAL as its quarter-master general.  However, disagreements with de Lacy Evans over strategy led to MacDougall leaving the BAL a year later and resigning from the British army at the same time.  When the UK's national militia was revived in 1852, MacDougall formed the Royal Lancashire Militia Artillery, which eventually became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery.  I thought these thumbnail biographies are useful in showing that despite the original reservations of the likes of Wellington, service in the BAL does not seem to have had a particularly negative effect on the careers of its officers. 

3 figures. Painted August 2021.

Alava infantry - 1st battalion

Time flew away from me during December and January, so apologies for the lack of posts. It's also been very dark and taking photos has been quite difficult. But I have a flurry of First Carlist War and Napoleonic posts with which to start the new year. It's been a while since I last painted up some Carlist infantry, so here is a battalion from Alava. As you'd expect with an area sympathetic to the Carlist cause, Alava is a province in the Basque country in north-west Spain. It is also one of the provinces that makes Rioja wine. Carlos seems to have recruited at least 6 battalions from Alava, all of which served in the Army of the North.

These are rewarding figures to paint - very quick and easy to do.  This brings my Carlist forces to a total of 5 battalions - a pretty poor effort for a project that I started in 2009.  But I suppose that's what happens when you're not under the pressure of painting things for particular and/or regular games.  I think my camera may now be on its last legs - I find getting things in focus is becoming harder, although that may of course be me rather than the camera!

18 figures.  Painted November 2024.  Flag by Adolfo Ramos.