Major Norcliffe Norcliffe, 18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars), 1845 circa (oil on...

Major (later Major-General, Sir) Norcliffe Norcliffe, 18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars), 1845 circa. Oil on canvas by Henry Wyndham Phillips (1820-1868), 1845 circa. Norcliffe (1791-1862) joined the army at the age of 16 as an ensign in the 4th Dragoons. He saw action in the Peninsular War (1808-1814), being severely wounded at the battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812. Promoted to major in 1821, he exchanged into the 17th Lancers. In May 1823 he transferred to the half-pay list of the 18th Hussars, as he stated, for ‘peculiar private motives’. He married in York on 24 June 1824. Being on the half pay list meant that Norcliffe was in effect semi-retired, but his case seems unusual since the 18th Hussars had been disbanded in 1821, two years before his transfer. Norcliffe remained on half-pay, buying successive promotions up to major-general in 1855. However commissions kept their value so this may have been for investment. The portrait used to hang in the dining room of the family home, Langton Hall near Malton, Yorkshire.