The Keys of the postern gate of Corunna, Spain, 1808

Description

In 1808 the war with Napoleonic France was reaching its peak. The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers sailed from Falmouth in Cornwall with 671 officers and men, forty-eight wives and twenty children for Corunna in Spain, which they reached on 13 October. They were to reinforce the army of Sir John Moore and to assist in driving the French out of Spain. Just before Christmas, Moore learnt that he was about to be trapped by Napoleon, with an army twice as strong, and decided to retreat over the mountains to Corunna. It was a desperate march through thick snow with a shortage of food and boots. The men, still accompanied by the wives and children, were generally bare-footed. Their sufferings were made worse by a violent storm during the night of 8 January. Discipline in the army broke down and there was much pillage and drunkenness. It is a great credit to the 2nd Battalion that by the time they reached Corunna on 11 January only seventy-eight men had been lost.

The battle of Corunna began at 2 p.m. on 16 January. Just as the French advance had been checked Moore was fatally wounded. At 10 p.m. the troops began to embark and by the following morning only the two brigades which had covered the embarkation remained on shore. They embarked on the night of 17/18 January and the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers was the last to leave this portion of Spanish soil. The following account was written some years later by Miss Fletcher, a descendent of one of the officers present on that day:

'The rear-guard was commanded by Captain Thomas Lloyd Fletcher, of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He, with his corporal, were the last to leave the town. On their way to embark, and as they passed through the gates, Captain Fletcher turned and locked them. The key not turning easily, they thrust in a bayonet, and between them managed it. Captain Fletcher brought away the keys, and they are now in the possession of his son ... The keys are held together by a ring, from which is suspended a steel plate, with the inscription 'Postigo de Puerta de Abajo' ('Postern of lower gate'). One key still shows the wrench of the bayonet.'

Thomas Fletcher transferred to the 4th Ceylon Rifles in 1810. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1846 and lived at Maesgwaelog, Overton, and Gwern Haulod, Ellesmere, where he brought up his five sons and seven daughters. He died in 1850. The keys of Corunna were presented to the Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum by H. Lloyd Fletcher in 1955.

Source: Text by Peter Crocker, Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum.