ABSTRACT
The last years of the reign of George III saw the Army involved in two major wars, separated by a peace lasting a few months only. Individual regiments on occasions fought very well, but the inexperience and lack of professional motivation of officers was all too evident. The Adjutant-General commented that of the fifteen cavalry and twenty-six infantry regiments committed twenty-one are commanded literally by boys or idiots ignorant of the simplest basic military knowledge and concerned only with their career advancement to be achieved by judicious purchase. Reforms were, however, initiated; these in time assisted the Army, under the military genius of the Duke of Wellington, to direct and motivate the British Army to withstand French attacks and go on to win spectacular victories culminating in that at Waterloo. The first two troops of Horse Artillery were formed in 1793, and in the course of the war three further field artillery units were raised.
