William Patrick Brabazon, known at times as Patrick, was a soldier in the British Army. According to the inscription on his tombstone he was born in Ireland on 14 August 1799. His father is said to be William Brabazon born cir 1759 who fought for the King during the American War of Independence and returned to Britain with his regiment afterwards.
William Patrick was in the 1st (King’s) Dragoon Guards, an elite cavalry regiment, most of whom, but not all, were mounted. Troop movements and his children's birth records indicate that he would have been in 'D' troop.
The only Brabazon recorded in the archives of 1st Dragoon Guards is Private P Brabazon with a date of 1834. This is probably him, but some of his children were born before this date in places where ‘D’ troop was stationed. His first four children's births, recorded in the GRO Regimental Birth's Indexes list him as William Brabazon, regiment 'D'Gds'. In church records he is called Patrick.
A Private of the 1st or Kings Dragoons Guards
From Costumes of the Army of the British Empire
by Charles Hamilton Smith.
This uniform was used from 1812 to 1822 when a more elaborate costume was introduced. The flowing horsehair tail on the helmet, seen here, was then replaced by an imposing bearskin crest. Trousers were light blue; later dark blue with a yellow stripe.
The regiment was in Ireland 1810-1814.
Regimental headquarters in 1810 were Lisburn and Dundalk. In December 1811
headquarters moved to Dublin and in September 1812 to Clonmell. In May 1813 a
detachment of a corporal and seventeen troopers was sent to the Peninsular and
on 19 June 1813 the troops were augmented by four boys per troop. There were
ten troops, so forty boys would have been recruited in June 1813. William
Patrick might have enlisted then as a boy soldier, either by answering an
advertisement in Ireland, or from within the regiment if his father was still
in the army.
