The
von der Deckens are an old noble family in
Lower Saxony which produced several officers for the forces of the
Electorate of Hanover. In 1784 Johann Friedrich joined the
Hanoverian Army, fighting in the
French Revolutionary Wars from 1793 to 1795. He headed a military journal with his friend
Gerhard von Scharnhorst, the Prussian military reformer for many years. In 1803 he joined the diplomatic service on Napoleon's occupation of Hanover and left for the United Kingdom. On 28 July 1803 he began together with Sir
Colin Halkett recruiting expatriate Hanoverian soldiers to fight for the United Kingdom in the
War of the Third Coalition and subsequent Napoleonic conflicts, with his recruits forming the
King's German Legion, with which he fought from 1805 to 1807. In 1808 he was sent to Spain and Portugal during the
Peninsular War as a diplomat and military advisor and to recruit troops to fight against France, before returning to England, where in 1815 he organised another Hanoverian regiment to fight against the French during the
Hundred Days. After the war he refused military decorations from the Netherlands and Prussia. In 1817 he bought the former Benedictine monastery in
Ringelheim and rebuilt it as his country house, the
Schloss und Park Ringelheim, spending his retirement there from 1833, the year in which he was made a
count (
Graf). It is a
primogeniture title and it was given by
William IV as king of the restored
kingdom of Hanover. In 1835 he also became president of the
Historical Society for Lower Saxony. == References ==