Sir John Slade, 1st Baronet

General Sir John "Black Jack" Slade, 1st Baronet, GCH (31 December 1762 – 13 August 1859) was a British Army officer.

Background and early military life

Slade was the son of John Slade (d. 1801) of Maunsel Grange, Somerset, a Victualling Commissioner, and his wife, Charlotte "née" Portal. He obtained a commission as cornet in the 10th Dragoons on 11 May 1780, and became a lieutenant on 28 April 1783, captain on 24 October 1787, major on 1 March 1794, and lieutenant colonel on 29 April 1795. On 18 October 1798, he exchanged to the 1st Dragoons (the Royals). He was appointed equerry to the Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland in 1800, and became a colonel in the army on 29 April 1802. In June 1804, he was made brigadier, and gave up command of the Royals. [Liddell, p.177]

Peninsular War cavalry general

Slade saw no active service until, in October 1808, he was sent to Corunna in command of a hussar brigade. Of limited ability, lacking initiative, and apparently capable only of going forward to carry out a definite order, he was 'nearly useless' according to Lord Paget, who despised him. Paget publicly called Slade "that damned stupid fellow," and subsequently transferred his own regiment, the 7th Hussars, from Slade's brigade to Charles Stewart's. Slade led the 10th Hussars in the successful cavalry action at Sahagún on 20 December. The 10th arrived too late to play an active role in the action, primarily because Slade insisted on making a stirring, and apparently long, speech ending in the words, "blood and slaughter, march!" [Fletcher, p. 91] Slade shared in the arduous work of the cavalry during Moore's retreat, and served as a volunteer at the Battle of Corunna, when the cavalry had embarked. He was employed on the staff in England for six months, but returned to the Peninsula in August 1809 with a brigade of dragoons, and served there continuously for four years. He was at Busaco and at Fuentes de Oñoro. He commanded the cavalry division, in Cotton's absence, during Masséna's retreat from Portugal in the spring of 1811. He was said to have missed opportunities, but Wellington mentioned him favourably in his dispatch of 14 March.

On 11 June 1812, when he was under Hill in Estremadura, Slade was beaten by General Lallemand in a cavalry action at Maguilla. Each had two regiments. The British had the advantage in the first encounter, and followed headlong in pursuit through a defile, beyond which they found the French reserve drawn up. Their own reserve had joined in the pursuit and lost its formation; the brigade panicked, was pursued by the French for several miles, and lost more than 100 prisoners. [Fletcher, pp.166-178] Slade rode with the leading squadrons, instead of attending to the supports, and Wellington and others blamed him. Wellington was furious: he wrote, 'It is occasioned entirely by a trick our officers of cavalry have acquired of galloping at every thing...They never...think of manouevring'. If 'Black Jack' was not held in very high regard by his commander-in-chief, some of his subordinates were equally damning; one officer wrote: "As a leader of cavalry he was deplorable. He was a byword for inefficiency throughout the army." [Cassels, p. 140]

Later career and honours

In May 1813, Slade's brigade was transferred to General Fane, and he went home, and was employed for a year in Ireland. The official reason for Slade losing his command was that Major General Clinton had been given the local rank of lieutenant general, and John Slade was senior to him. [Liddell, pp.178-179] In reality this seems to have been a useful method by which Wellington divested himself of a general he had become convinced was less than competent. Slade received a gold medal and one clasp for Corunna and Fuentes d'Oñoro. He had been promoted to major general on 25 October 1809, became a lieutenant general on 4 June 1814, and a general on 10 January 1837. In 1831, he was given the colonelcy of the 5th Dragoon Guards; on 30 September 1831 he was made a baronet, and in 1835 he was appointed a GCH. He was honoured three times with the thanks of Parliament. [Liddell, p.179] He died on 13 August 1859 at his home, Monty's Court, and was buried at Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton, Somerset, 'the oldest living member of the army save one'. [Liddell, p.179]

Family

He married, first, on 20 September 1792, Anna Eliza Dawson (d. 24 December 1819), and second, on 17 June 1822, Matilda Ellen Dawson (d. 12 September 1868). He had eleven sons and four daughters. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his third son, Frederic William Slade (1801–1863), queen's counsel and bencher of the Middle Temple. Admiral Sir Adolphus Slade (1804–1877) was his fifth son.

Footnotes

References

*DNB
*Cassels, S.A.C. (Ed.), Peninsular Portrait 1811-1814 - The Letters of William Bragge, Third (King's Own) Dragoons. London. (1963).
*Fletcher, I., Galloping at Everything: The British Cavalry in the Peninsula and at Waterloo 1808-15, Spellmount, Staplehurst (1999). ISBN 1862270163.
*Liddel, R.S., The Memoirs of the Tenth Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales' Own), London (1891).