Joseph Dyas
Encyclopedia
Joseph Dyas was an Ensign
(later Captain) in the British 51st Light Infantry
, serving in the Napoleonic Wars
.
He is famous for his actions at the storming of the San Christobal fort, Badajoz
; one of the bloodiest actions of the Peninsular War
. He twice volunteered to be part of the Forlorn Hope
, on the second occasion he led the party after its commander, Major McGreachy, and all the other officers were killed.
Dyas was immediately offered a promotion in another regiment by Wellington
, but declined and stayed with the 51st. He subsequently served at Waterloo
.
He reached the rank of Captain, later serving in the 2nd Ceylon Regiment, before taking 'half-pay' (pension). He retired to Ballymena
, County Antrim and served as the local Stipendiary Magistrate. He died there on 3 May 1850, and is buried in St. Patrick's Church.
His son Joseph Henry Dyas served in the Royal Engineers
, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Dyas is still celebrated by The Light Infantry
for his actions at Badajoz, with a toast to "Ensign Dyas and the Stormers!".
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
(later Captain) in the British 51st Light Infantry
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was a regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. The regiment's traditions and history are now maintained by The Rifles.-The 51st Foot:...
, serving in the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
.
He is famous for his actions at the storming of the San Christobal fort, Badajoz
Battle of Badajoz (1812)
In the Battle of Badajoz , the Anglo-Portuguese Army, under the Earl of Wellington, besieged Badajoz, Spain and forced the surrender of the French garrison....
; one of the bloodiest actions of the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
. He twice volunteered to be part of the Forlorn Hope
Forlorn hope
A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high....
, on the second occasion he led the party after its commander, Major McGreachy, and all the other officers were killed.
Dyas was immediately offered a promotion in another regiment by Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
, but declined and stayed with the 51st. He subsequently served at Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
.
He reached the rank of Captain, later serving in the 2nd Ceylon Regiment, before taking 'half-pay' (pension). He retired to Ballymena
Ballymena
Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....
, County Antrim and served as the local Stipendiary Magistrate. He died there on 3 May 1850, and is buried in St. Patrick's Church.
His son Joseph Henry Dyas served in the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Dyas is still celebrated by The Light Infantry
The Light Infantry
The Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Light Division. It was formed on 10 July 1968 as a "large regiment" by the amalgamation of the four remaining light infantry regiments of the Light Infantry Brigade:...
for his actions at Badajoz, with a toast to "Ensign Dyas and the Stormers!".
Description of Badajoz
An unpublished eyewitness account, from the diary of another subaltern in the party, is quoted in the Waterloo Roll Call. More general comments are also documented in General Wellesley's dispatches.
At ten o'clock at night, 200 men moved forward to the assault, Dyas leading the advance. He made a circuit until he came exactly opposite to the breach instead of entering the ditch as before; a sheep-path, which he remembered in the evening while he and Major MacGeechy made their observations, served to guide them to the part of the glacisGlacisA glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope of earth used in late European fortresses so constructed as to keep any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment...
in front of the breach. Arrived at this spot, the detachment descended the ditch, and found themselves at the foot of the breach ; but here an unlooked-for event stopped their further progress, and would have been in itself sufficient to have caused the failure of the attack. The ladders were entrusted to a party composed of a foreign corpsCorpsA corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
in our pay, called 'the Chasseurs BritanniquesChasseurs BritanniquesThe Chasseurs Britanniques was a battalion-sized corps of foreign volunteers, who fought for Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. The regiment was formed from the remnants of the Prince of Condé's Army after it was disbanded in 1800...
'; these men, the moment they reached the glacis, glad to rid themselves of their load, flung the ladders into the ditch, instead of sliding them between the palisadoesPalisadeA palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
; they fell across them, and so stuck fast, and being made of heavy
green wood, it was next to impossible to more, much less place them upright against the breach, and almost all the storming party were massacred in the attempt. Placed in a situation so frightful, it required a man of the most determined character to continue the attack. Every officer of the detachment had fallen, Major MacGeechy one of the first; and at this moment Dyas and about five-and-twenty men were all that remained of the 200. Undismayed by these circumstances, the soldiers persevered, and Dyas, although wounded and bleeding, succeeded in disentangling one ladder, and placing it against what was considered to be the breach, it was speedily mounted, but upon arriving at the top of the ladder, instead of the breach, it was found to be a stone wall that had been constructed in the night, and which completely cut off all communication between the ditch and the bastionBastionA bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
, so that when the men reached the top of this wall, they were, in effect, as far from the breach as if they had been in their own batteriesArtillery batteryIn military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
. From this faithful detail it is evident that the soldiers did as much as possible to ensure success, and that failure was owing to a combination of untoward circumstances over which the troops had no control. Nineteen men were all that escaped.
External links
- The Official British Army Light Infantry Web Site
- The KOYLI Museum, has a small section which houses information on the 51st (2nd Yorkshire, West Riding) Light Infantry during the Napoleonic wars
- 51st (2nd Yorkshire, West Riding) Light Infantry , a re-enactment group based in the West Midlands who depict this Regiment during the Napoleonic Wars