| At the
western end of the village, looking towards the hills of Shorncliffe
Camp, stands a statue of Lieut. General Sir John Moore, who was
killed at Corunna in 1809.
As Commandant at Shorncliffe in 1803-5 he
was largely responsible for the training of the new light infantry
then beginning to replace cavalry. . . his mother and sister
lived for time at York Cottage in Castle Road.
One of the most controversial figures in English
history, John Moore, was born in Glasgow on the 13 November 1761,
the son of a doctor descended from the Muires of Rowallen and on his
mothers's side from he Earls of Kinnoull.
Preferment was rapid for a young officer who
provided to be efficient, generous and brave. In 1779, in America,
he distinguished himself by rallying a mixed force of infantry which
had been cut off from the main group and though a senior officer
fled from he fight, Lieutenant John Moore held out against large
numbers and managed to rejoin the main Army. As the result of his
actions he was promoted Captain.
Sandgate and Shorncliffe 1802-1806
By 1802 Moore had been gazetted Major-General and
had seen active service in Corsica, The West Indies, Holland and
Egypt. He had been wounded three times narrowly escaping death from
poison when he swallowed a measure of lead azide meant as a dressing
for his leg wound.
The officers who served under him thought the
world of him presenting him with a silver sword as a token of their
regard after the Egyptian Campaign.
When Napoleon Bonaparte began to prepare his
invasion of England, General Moor was given the Command of the South
East with the defence of the coast from Dover to Dungeness as his
first task.
To this end he advocated the construction of a
series of Martello Towers by which he had been impressed in Corsica
and the cutting of the Grand Military Canal from Cheriton to Cliffe
End in Sussex.
Under a Militia scheme some 340,000 volunteers
from Kent had their names on the roll. Moore conducted exercises
with several thousand of them who were to defend the lines of the
Downs behind the regular battalions in the event of a French
landing.
The training of the Brigade was the matter nearest
to John Moore's heart. He left Chatham and took up residence in a
tent on Shorncliffe heights the better to direct the programme.
His methods might not have been entirely new but
they were the basis of the tactics by means of which Wellington was
able to succeed in Spain and at Waterloo ten years later. In fact
John Moore's greatest contribution to the British Army lay in his
carefully designed plan for building and training the Light Division
in the years 1803 and 1806 at Shorncliffe.
Excerpts taken from 'General Moore at Shorncliffe'
which was published by The Sandgate Society
(original version by H
Roy Wright, M.A., 10 Aug 1965)
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