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Esme was born on 10 Jul 1789 and baptised 12 Jul 1789 at St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London, England. He was the son of Thomas Erskine and Frances Moore.
Esme married Elizabeth Bland Smith on 19 Mar 1809 in Wigtown, Scotland.[1]
The four children of Esme and Eliza were baptised together on 9 Apr 1817 at St George Hanover Square, Westminnster, London, England.
THE ADJUTANT GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT Captain the Honourable Esme Stuart Erskine (sw), 60th (Royal American) Foot Student High Wycombe 1810-1811. Deputy Assistant Adjutant General 1815. Second Lieutenant without purchase 14/3/1807 (vice Douglas promoted 4th Garrison Battalion), 21st Foot. Lieutenant 18/7/1807 (vice Dougan dismissed), 2nd Garrison Battalion. Lieutenant without purchase 10/3/1810 (vice Hastings exchanged), 27th Foot. Admitted to the Senior Department of the RMC on 18/4/1810. Left the RMC in February 1811. Captain of a Company by purchase 16/2/1811 (vice Virgo), 60th Foot. Captain of a Troop 14/5/1811 (vice Gordon exchanged), 15th Light Dragoons. Captain of a Company 29/8/1812 (vice Dundas exchanged), 60th Foot. Served in the Peninsula February-September 1813 (attached to 2nd Division) and in the Netherlands 1813-1814 as a Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General.
Esme Erskine was a student in the Senior Department of the Royal Military College while a lieutenant in the 27th Foot and was promoted to captain in the 60th immediately on completion of his studies in February 1811. After spending just over a year as a troop commander in a cavalry regiment he transferred back to his previous regiment as a company commander. Erskine briefly served in the Peninsula War for eight months in 1813 on the staff of the Quartermaster General’s Department as a Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General attached to the 2nd Division. He remained with the Quartermaster General’s Department when posted to the Netherlands in late 1813. In 1815 Erskine received another staff appointment, this time to the Adjutant General’s Department as a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General.
At the battle of Quatre Bras on 16 June Erskine, together with the Adjutant General Major General Sir Edward Barnes and his ADC, helped rally a fleeing Belgian light cavalry regiment (the 5th Belgian Light Dragoons of the 2nd Light Brigade, Netherlands Cavalry Division after they had been routed by French cavalry south of the crossroads. During the battle Erskine had a horse shot from under him. According to one source on 17 June Erskine was severely wounded in his arm and captured during the British rearguard action at Genappe, subsequently being personally interrogated by Napoleon himself. He then had to have his injured arm amputated and apparently later escaped during the French rout after their defeat at Waterloo.
However, according to Elizabeth Ord, a civilian whose house in Brussels was used as a makeshift hospital, Erskine was at Waterloo on 18 June and it was there that he suffered his injuries, having one arm shot off and the other seriously wounded. After being wrapped in a blanket by two soldiers he was left at the side of the road and seen by Wellington as the latter joined the pursuit of the defeated French army.
Erskine was promoted to Brevet Major for his services during the Waterloo campaign. A year later he transferred to the 2nd Ceylon Regiment and was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel.
Esme passed away in 1817 at sea enroute to Ceylon.
PORTRAIT OF THE HONOURABLE ESME STEWART ERSKINE (1789-1817) AS A CAPTAIN IN THE 51ST REGIMENT OF LIGHT INFANTRY, STANDING IN FULL MILITARY UNIFORM BY HIS ENCAMPMENT AT THE BATTLE OF THE PYRENEES IN THE PENINSULAR WAR[1]
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