Talk:11th Hussars

Latest comment: 2 years ago by JF42 in topic Cherry Pickers 2

WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Tag & Assess 2008 edit

Article reassessed and graded as start class. --dashiellx (talk) 17:47, 25 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Redirection edit

There really ought to be a redirection so that "Eleventh Hussars" ends up here without as much fuss as I just went through. Dick Kimball (talk) 18:34, 4 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

Dead link edit

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

--JeffGBot (talk) 03:08, 1 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Dead link 2 edit

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

--JeffGBot (talk) 03:09, 1 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hiatus of 77 years edit

There is a considerable gap in this article between the end of the 7 Years War in 1763 and 1840, when the Regiment became Hussars (Prince Albert's Own).

This hiatus includes the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, when the 11th Light Dragoons won battle honours at Beaumont, Willems, Egypt, Salamanca, Peninsula and Waterloo. There was also the mysterious incident of the lost guns at Geldermalsen.


JF42 (talk) 11:54, 11 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

Current Official Name: San Martín de Trevejo edit

The script San Martin de Trebejo seems to be outdated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.8.98.118 (talk) 11:24, 7 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

Purely by coincidence, edit

"Purely by coincidence, this included "cherry" or crimson coloured trousers"

It is not immediately clear to what this sentence refers, being somewhat dense. It is presumably alluding to the cherry orchard legend as origin of the regiment's nickname of 'Cherry pickers' and the coincidental choice of crimson trousers, inspired by the House of Saxe Coburg's livery colours( which should be mentioned), although describing these as 'Cherry' was more likely an epithet added subsequently, whether in reference to the Spanish orchard story or simply a derogatory comment on the regiment's flashy new uniforms, as in 'cherry bums.' However that story is some way back in the article. It would be worth untangling these elements and making clear the reference, if the point is worth making, although the 'cherry pickers' nickname and attendant story is a tradition of uncertain date. JF42 (talk) 22:06, 9 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

Cherry Pickers edit

"one of its squadrons was forced to take cover in an orchard at San Martín de Trevejo in Spain an incident that may have been the derivation of its nickname, the Cherry Pickers."

The linked source makes no reference either to San Martin de Trevejo, a cherry orchard, or to the nickname. In a separate page of the linked website, relating to the 11th Light Dragoons history after becoming the 11th Hussars, their new crimson overalls are described as fitting well with the "dubious regimental nickname of 'Cherrypickers' which had been acquired in the Peninsula when a troop of the 11th had been forced to hide in cherry trees to avoid the French." No mention there of St Martin De Trevejo.

The reference in the article to the tradition of how the 11th LDgns/Hussars acquired their 'Cherry Pickers' nickname (probably apocryphal), is therefore without a reference source.

JF42 (talk) 11:56, 13 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

Cherry Pickers 2 edit

"In August, one of its squadrons was forced to take cover in an orchard at San Martín de Trevejo in Spain, an incident that may have been the derivation of its nickname, the Cherry Pickers."

Richard Cannon's Historical Record of the Eleventh (Prince Albert's Own) Light Dragoons (Hussars) published in 1843, makes no reference to the 'Cherry Pickers' nickname, or its origin. The only reference to a misfortune befalling a detachment of the regiment at St Martin de Trevejo in August 1811, does not involve a squadron but a patrol of ten men under Lieutenant Wood that was "surprised and captured" on August 15th. This was announced in dispatches published in the London Gazette for September 17th 1811. There is no reference to a cherry orchard or any other agricultural enclosure. The episode is also mentioned in passing by Napier in Book 14 of his Peninsular War(p. 405). Without more evidence, the association of the 'Cherry Picker' nickname with mishaps suffered by the 11th Light Dragoons on service in Spain must be classed as 'tradition.'

I propose amending the reference thus: "In August 1811, a ten-man piquet was surprised and captured at San Martín de Trevejo in Spain, an incident that may have given rise to the regiment's nickname, "The Cherry Pickers," which tradition associates with a mishap occurring in the vicinity of a cherry orchard." JF42 (talk) 20:26, 18 February 2022 (UTC)Reply