After the
occupation of Hanover by Napoleonic troops the
Convention of Artlenburg, also called the Convention of the Elbe, was signed on 5 July 1803 and formally dissolved the
Electorate of Hanover. Consequently, the Elector's army was disbanded. Many former Hanoverian officers and soldiers fled the French occupation of Hanover to
Britain;
George III, the deposed
Elector of Hanover, was also
King of the United Kingdom. The same year, Major
Colin Halkett and Colonel
Johann Friedrich von der Decken were issued warrants to raise a corps of
light infantry, to be named ''The King's German Regiment''. On 19 December 1803, Halkett's and von der Decken's levies were combined as a basis of a mixed corps (includes all arms: mounted, infantry, artillery) renamed the King's German Legion. The KGL infantry were quartered in
Bexhill-on-Sea and the cavalry in
Weymouth, Dorset. On 22 July 1806, several KGL units were involved in a street fight in
Tullamore, Ireland with Irish militiamen in the so-called
Battle of Tullamore. The number of
officers and other ranks grew over time to approximately 14,000, but during the 13 years of its existence, close to 28,000 men served in the legion at one time or another. Initially, most of the officers were appointed with temporary rank, but in 1812 all the officers of the legion were given permanent rank in the British Army for "having so frequently distinguished themselves against the enemy". It saw active service as an integral part of the British Army from 1805 to 1816, after which its units were disbanded. In November 1813
Hanover was liberated from French rule and the Hanoverian Army revived. At the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815 two distinct Hanoverian forcesthe KGL and the Hanoverian Armyserved under the
Duke of Wellington. == Organisation ==