Konrad Ludwig Georg Baring (8 March 1773,

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

– 27 February 1848,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, during a spa treatment) was an officer in the army of the

Electorate of Hanover The Electorate of Hanover (german: Kurfürstentum Hannover or simply ''Kurhannover'') was an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, located in northwestern Germany and taking its name from the capital city of Hanover. It was formally known as ...

and the British army's

King's German Legion The King's German Legion (KGL; german: Des Königs Deutsche Legion, semantically erroneous obsolete German variations are , , ) was a British Army unit of mostly expatriated German personnel during the period 1803–16. The legion achieved th ...

. Some sources also give his name as Baron Georg(e) von Baring.

Life

To 1815

Baring's military career began with his joining the Hanoverian army in 1787. In November 1803 (dating the commission to 17 November) he became a brevet major in the ''King's Germans'' (renamed the

on 19 December 1803), a force of which he had been one of the first members. He fought in the campaigns in Hannover (1805,

Third Coalition The War of the Third Coalition) * In French historiography, it is known as the Austrian campaign of 1805 (french: Campagne d'Autriche de 1805) or the German campaign of 1805 (french: Campagne d'Allemagne de 1805) was a European conflict spanni ...

), the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

(1807–08,

Gunboat War The Gunboat War (, ; 1807–1814) was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Nav ...

/ English Wars), the Pyrenees (1808–13,

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

), the

Walcheren Campaign The Walcheren Campaign ( ) was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham ...

(1809,

Fifth Coalition The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Empire ...

), southern France (1813–14,

Sixth Coalition Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six. * The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction Music * Sixth interval (music)s: ** major sixth, a musical interval ** minor sixth ...

) and the Netherlands (1814, Sixth Coalition). On 16 May 1811 he was slightly wounded at the

battle of Albuera The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was a battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about south ...

. On 18 June 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 La Haye Sainte (named either after Jesus Christ's crown of thorns or a bramble hedge round a field nearby) is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road in Belgium. It has changed very little since it ...

during the

battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

on 18 June 1815. He wrote about the events of the day in a detailed report,Schwertfeger, Geschichte der Königlich Deutschen Legion 1803-1816 2. Vol S. 315 ff 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 The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Han ...

, in which he became

oberst ''Oberst'' () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish ...

in the Garde-Grenadier-Regiment (26 December 1828) 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'' (''History of the Participation of the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion of the King's German Legion at the Battle of 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

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

s by

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

(then still king of Hanover) in recognition of his war service and made Hanover's city commander. In 1834 he rose to

Generalmajor is the Germanic variant of major general, used in a number of Central and Northern European countries. Austria Belgium Denmark is the second lowest general officer rank in the Royal Danish Army and Royal Danish Air Force. As a two-star ...

then in 1846 to

Generalleutnant is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of O ...

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. Hannover Gedenkstein Georg Freiherr von Baring 2012

Hannover Gedenkstein Georg Freiherr von Baring 2012

Honours

* United Kingdom ** CB – Knight Companion of the ''

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

'' **

Waterloo Medal The Waterloo Medal is a military decoration that was conferred upon every officer, non-commissioned officer and soldier of the British Army (including members of the King's German Legion) who took part in one or more of the following battles: Li ...

* Kingdom of Hannover **

Royal Guelphic Order The Royal Guelphic Order (german: Königliche Guelphen-Orden), sometimes referred to as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, is a Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent (later King George IV). It takes its name ...

, 2nd class ** King William Cross * Kingdom of the Netherlands **

Military William Order The Military William Order, or often named Military Order of William (Dutch: , abbreviation: MWO), is the oldest and highest honour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is named after St. William of Gellone (755–814), the first Prince of Oran ...

, 3rd class

References

Bibliography

* N. Ludlow Beamish; ''History of the King's German Legion Vol. 2''. 1832-37 (new edition: Naval and Military Press 1997 ) * Mike Chappell; ''The King's German Legion (2) 1812-1816''. Osprey 2000 * Peter Hofschröer; ''The Waterloo Campaign – The German Victory''. Greenhill Books London (1999) * Friedrich Lindau, ''Erinnerungen eines Soldaten aus den Feldzügen der Königlich – deutschen Legion: Ein Bürger Hamelns erzählt aus der Zeit 1806 bis 1815''. AUREL Verlag, Daun 2006 * Jens Mastnak: Diese denckwürdige und mörderische Schlacht – Die Hannoveraner bei Waterloo, Celle 2003 *

Klaus Mlynek Klaus Mlynek (born 16 January 1936) is a German historian and scientific archivist. The long-term director of the Stadtarchiv Hannover is one of the editors and authors of the ', an encyclopedia of Hanover. Life Born in Poznań, Poland, Mlyne ...

in ''Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon. Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart''. Hannover: Schlüter 2002, S. 39f. * Bernhard Schwertfeger; ''Geschichte der Königlich Deutschen Legion 1803-1816 2. Band''. Hahn‘sche Buchhandlung 1907 * ''Staats- und Adelskalender für das Königreich Hannover auf das Jahr 1830''

External links

King‘s German Legion
– full report on Baring's defence of La Haye Sainte {{DEFAULTSORT:Baring, George 1773 births 1848 deaths German commanders of the Napoleonic Wars King's German Legion