Georg Baring


Konrad Ludwig Georg Baring was an officer in the army of the Electorate of Hanover and the British army's King's German Legion. Some sources also give his name as Baron Georg von Baring.

Life

To 1815

Baring's military career began with his joining the Hanoverian army in 1787. In November 1803 he became a brevet major in the King's Germans, a force of which he had been one of the first members. He fought in the campaigns in Hannover , the Baltic, the Pyrenees, the Walcheren Campaign, southern France and the Netherlands. On 16 May 1811 he was slightly wounded at the battle of Albuera. On 18 January 1815 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Waterloo

At the head of the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion of the Legion, Baring was put in charge of the defence of the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte during the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. He wrote about the events of the day in a detailed report, which ended with the words:

After Waterloo

The King's German Legion was dissolved after Waterloo and Baring joined the newly formed army of the Kingdom of Hanover, in which he became oberst in the Garde-Grenadier-Regiment and from 1830 as Flügel-Adjutant in the general staff. In 1831, the year in which his Erzählung der Teilnahme des 2. Leichten Bataillons der Kgl. Deutschen Legion an der Schlacht von Waterloo was published in a Hanoverian military journal, he held the rank of Brigade-Kommandeur. On 18 June 1832, the seventeenth anniversary of Waterloo, he and his descendants were made Freiherrs by William IV in recognition of his war service and made Hanover's city commander. In 1834 he rose to Generalmajor then in 1846 to Generalleutnant.

Memorials

A street in Hanover city-centre is named after him and a small memorial stone is dedicated in front of the Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover near the present-day regional parliament and the former royal palace.

Honours