Robert Ginn here was the son of Robert and Mary Ginn - see my post of 19th April 2020 . He has always had a fascination for me, not least because he was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, which have absorbed my interest since the age of 12, ie for over fifty years now. He fought in two of the major engagements in British military history, and lived to tell about them. I have always had an admiration for the guy.
Robert was a Labourer in early life, but that was a bore to him, he wanted adventure. War had broken out with Revolutionary France in 1793, and in 1798 the 52nd Regiment of Foot returned from action in India. They needed to recruit, and the recruiting parties went out round the country. Excited by the thought of an army life, Bob here, aged 20, took the "shilling off of the drum" and joined their ranks.
Bob had joined what was shortly to be a famous regiment. The 52nd, although in 1799 an ordinary foot regiment, were by 1801 designated (with the 95th (Rifles) and the 43rd) as Light Infantry and used not as a line regiment, but trained as Light Infantry skirmishers. These three regiments were to become the famous Light Brigade of the Napoleonic Wars, a truly elite force.
It has always been interesting to me that there was a Ginn (unrelated to each other so far as I know) in each of these regiments, an Absolem (from Suffolk) in the 43rd, Sam Ginn from Hertfordshire in the 95th and Bob here. These three men fought alongside each other.
Bob Ginn would initially have trained at Shorncliffe Camp in Kent and the man was a natural soldier. By 1803 he had been promoted to Sergeant, in an army of tough, ill disciplined men he must have commanded respect. At 5ft 9ins he was tall for a working class man of his day.
Shorncliffe
Robert went out to Spain in late 1808 to join the army of Sir John Moore , Colonel of the 52nd and commander of the British Army of a mere 25,000 men. Napoleon had 200,000 available to him in Spain and in December/January 1808/9 he led those men against Moore who, in appalling weather, was forced to retreat to Corunna. The retreat is famous, and infamous, for most of the army lost it's discipline, but not the 1st Battalions of the 95th and the 52nd, not Bob Ginn, whose men formed the rear guard. Bob fought the French at the resulting Battle of Corunna, where he and his lads fought off the French and allowed the Navy to take the army off, later the 52nd also slipped away. Sadly Bob was wounded, he took a wound to the face, whether sabre cut of gunpowder I do not know.
Safely back in England, Sergeant Ginn was nursed back to health, but he did not return to Spain for some time, and the first action he saw with the later Duke of Wellington was at the siege and subsequent storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812, where he fought alongside Sam Ginn of the 95th from my main blog/One Name Study.
The 52nd in action
I am not sure what happened (I have not researched this man in detail), but Bob did not apparently fight at any further action in the Peninsular, perhaps he was taken home to recruit for the regiment (the 2nd Battalion 52nd lost so many men at the heroic storming of Badajoz later in 1812 it ceased to be a unit).
Napoleon abdicated in the Spring of 1814. The united powers of Europe had defeated him, or so they thought. The 1st 52nd were transferred to Cork in Ireland, where they were to go out to the United States, to fight in the last days of the War of 1812, but they never sailed. There were gales that prevented their passage, and by the time the weather improved, news arrived of Napoleon's escape from Elba. The Napoleonic Wars began again in earnest.
The 1st Battalion of 52nd were sent to Belgium. By May 1815 they were in training near Mons and were strengthened by the best men of the 2nd Battalion. The combined force numbered about 1000 men, and the regiment was the strongest British regiment represented at the Battle of Waterloo.
Wellington and his army, together with a Prussian army under Blucher amassed in Belgium with a view to marching on Napoleon.
Napoleon was a military genius, but his only chance of winning a war against the combined armies of Europe was to attack the British and Prussian armies, split them and defeat them piecemeal before forces from Russia, Austria and elsewhere could arrive in France.
So he first attacked the Prussians at Ligny and gave them a battering and forced them to retreat away from the British. He then attacked the British at Quatre Bras and forced them further away from the Prussians. But the British fell back on the battle site at Waterloo, a site that Wellington already knew was good for a defensive battle and, crucially, this man who had never lost a battle against the French, sent a message to the Prussians to say that the British would stand against the French and fight all day if the Prussians could also bring themselves to march against them. Which they did.
So the Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18th June 1815. The 52nd had spent the 16th and 17th marching towards the guns, often in pouring rain and with the sound of French gunfire (fighting at Quatre Bras) in the distance ("Napoleon shaking his trousers" as one veteran said to a recruit) . They spent the night before Waterloo attempting to sleep in a ploughed field.
The dawn came wet and muddy. The French attacked late morning and for much of the day the 52nd were kept in reserve, incurring some casualties from gunfire but otherwise away from harm. Late in the afternoon they were brought forward when mass French cavalry attacks under General Ney were launched against the British infantry who were in square formation.
Things were pretty desperate. The infantry were resisting the cavalry who were in turns attacking and withdrawing, the infantrymen being hit by artillery fire as the cavalry withdrew. Casualties were mounting, and it may be here, standing and urging on his men, that Sergeant Ginn was hit (see below).
The French eventually drew back, Napoleon was furious with Ney for his losses, and for a time, although there was fighting elsewhere, life for the 52nd quietened.
It was now 6.30 in the evening and being June night was still a good way off. The British had fought all day as Wellington had promised, they were exhausted. The Prussians were beginning to arrive on the battlefield and Napoleon, aware that if he delayed he would definitely lose the battle, launched his final and he hoped conclusive attack. Napoleon ordered the Imperial Guard, his finest troops who had never been defeated, to attack the British positions.
The French as Wellington said "came on in the same old way" (in column attack) and were defeated in the same old way, by concentrated fire from the British infantry lines who held their ground. At the absolutely crucial point of the French attack, the Colonel of the 52nd brought them forward without orders , and as the French column came on head first against our Foot Guards, put the 52nd in line against the side of the French column (who could not fire) and poured fire into the Imperial Guard, advancing into a charge as soon as the volley was fired. It was the pivotal moment of the battle and the French broke, Napoleon lost and the war was over.
Bob Ginn lost his left eye at the Battle of Waterloo. The 52nd took quite a few casualties in the scrap with the Imperial Guard, but only Sergeant Ginn knew when he took his wound. The Regiment chased Napoleon to Paris, but left nearly 200 dead and wounded behind. It is likely that Bob was tended at the Field Hospital at Mont St Jean (below).
Whilst his regiment occupied Paris for a couple of years, Bob was invalided out of the service on pension in 1816 - they made much of the fact that he had been at Waterloo which gave him increased service time on his record and thus a higher pension.
Having temporarily (it was mostly corrected by an operation) lost the sight in one eye some years ago, I know that life cannot have been easy for Bob once he was demobbed. But he got by with his pension helping. He also received his Waterloo Medal
Waterloo Medal awarded to Lt Cargill of the 52nd
Sgt Ginn did not return to Eynesbury, but by a roundabout route he clearly went back to Huntingdonshire. Along the way the wounded veteran acquired a lady friend called Elizabeth from Ringstead in Northants, I do not believe they ever formally married but I could be wrong. Bet was as much as 20 years younger.
The couple settled in Buckden in Huntingdonshire- the church is below.
Robert and Elizabeth seem to have lived in Buckden for about twenty years. Although Elizabeth was born in the late 1790s, it is not thought that they ever had any children.
As late as 1847 the British issued their first ever campaign medal, the Military General Service Medal for those who had fought in the Peninsular War. It was only issued to survivors, many who had taken part were of course now dead, but Bob claimed his with clasps for Corunna and Ciudad Rodrigo.
Sergeant Robert Ginn of the 52nd Foot died in his bed in 1858 - he was 79 and is buried in Buckden Churchyard. Letters of Administration of his Estate (Death Duty Registers) were given to Elizabeth, who died in 1873 and lies alongside him.
