Lieut.-General Sir Gregory Holman Bromley WAY, K.C.B.
Commanded the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from 1811 to 1813.
Gregory Holman Bromley Way was born in London on the 28th December 1776, the fifth son of Benjamin Way, esq. of Denham Place, Bucks, and Elizabeth Anne, eldest daughter of Rev. William Cooke, D.D. Provost of College, Cambridge. He entered the army in 1797, as Ensign in the 26th (Cameronian Regiment) of Foot, and was captured by a French Privateer on his passage to join that corps in Canada; he was detained prisoner in France during a year and a half, and ultimately regained his liberty by exchange. On the 3rd November 1799, he procured a Lieutenancy in the 35th Foot, and with that corps served two years in the Mediterranean, being engaged at the siege of Valetta and capture of Malta from the French. On the 20th January 1803, he was given command of a company in the 5th Foot with the rank of Captain, and after serving in the Channel Islands, sailed with his regiment as part of an expedition in 1805 under Lord Cathcart to the Elbe, but, the vessel being shipwrecked off the Texel, he was taken prisoner by the Dutch. On his exchange he served in the expedition to Buenos Ayres and the Cape de Veld, with Major-General R. Craufurd, and subsequently went to St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope and South America. He served as Assistant Quartermaster-General to the forces under General Whitelocke, and at the storming of Buenos Ayres led the right wing of the infantry brigade. On the 25th February 1808, he obtained a majority in the 29th Foot, and proceeded forthwith to Portugal, in which country as well as in Spain his regiment highly distinguished itself. He served under Sir Brent Spencer off Cadiz, and thence proceeded to join the army under the Duke of Wellington in Portugal. He was present at the battles of Rolica, when, on gaining the plateau with a few men and officers of his regiment, Major Way had the blade of his sword shot away at the hilt, and the small party being at the same moment charged by the enemy, he was rescued from the bayonet of a French grenadier by the humanity of General Brenier. In 1809 he commanded the Light Infantry of Major-General Stewart's brigade, which led the advance of the British army in the actions of the 10th, 11th, and 12th of May, and terminated in the passage of the Douro, and capture of Oporto, and subsequent retreat of Soult's army. |
Lieut.-Gen. Sir G. H. B. Way, K.C.B. |
He was present in the battles of the 27th and 28th of July, at Talavera, and engaged in the action on the hill commanding the left of the British position, which was so gallantly carried at the point of the bayonet by the 29th Regiment, on the 27th, and defended on the morning of the 28th against a body of 8000 French grenadiers, who attempted to re-gain it, but was repulsed by the 29th and 48th Regiments. He commanded the Regiment at Busaco in 1910 and the following year served with it at the 1st seige of Badajos. He was present at the battle of Albuera, in 1811, and on the fall of his Lieut.-Colonel (Daniel White, who was mortally wounded) suceeded to the command of the 29th Regiment during the action, for which he had the honour of being awarded the Gold Medal. In the midst of this action, during which the British force suffered severely, 7,000 men being opposed to 22,000 of the best troops of the enemy, be was shot through the body, and his left arm fractured by a musket-shot at the shoulder joint. On the 30th of May 1811 he received the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
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On his return to England in that year (1811), with the skeleton of the 29th, reduced to about 100 effective men, Colonel Way by considerable exertion re-formed the corps and embarked a second time for the Peninsula, in 1813. But the heat of the climate, and the effects of the severe wounds he had received, made his return to England indispensable. His Majesty George IV. conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and appointed him in 1814 Companion of the Bath, with permission to wear the Order of the Tower and Sword presented to him by the King of Portugal. Shortly after his return he was appointed to the Staff North Britain, as Deputy Adjutant-General, and, on that office being abolished in 1822, was named Colonel of the 3rd Royal Veteran Battalion, which was disbanded three years subsequently. On the accession of William IV in 1830, he was raised to the rank of Major-General, and to that of Lieutenant-General, 23rd November 1841, on the birth of the Prince of Wales. On the 21st November 1843, he was gazetted to the Colonelcy of the first West India Regiment. Lieut.-General Way married on the 19th May 1815, Marianne, daughter of John Weyland, esq. of Woodcaton, Oxfordshire, and Woodrising, Norfolk, by whom he has left no issue. Lieut.-General Gregory Holman Bromley Way died on the 19th February 1844 at Brighton, aged 67, his remains were interred in the family vault in the church of Denham, Buckinghamshire. His medals were sold at Bonhams, London in July 2015 for £33,600. |
