Levi GRISDALE 1783 - 1855 researched and written by David FALLOWFIELD of Penrith.
PENISULAR WAR LATEST - PENRITH MAN CAPTURES ONE OF NAPOLEON’S GENERALS
As is only right, Penrith has honoured a son of the town, namely, Trooper William PEARSON of the 4th Light Dragoons who was involved in the “Charge of the Light Brigade” at Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War. Pearson Court is named for him and his birthplace in King Street bears a plaque. A hero of history no doubt. However, there is another local man, also a cavalryman, who should be better known and who was of equal heroic character. This man’s name was Levi Grisdale, and a chance reading of a somewhat worn, old headstone in Penrith Cemetery led to some research on Grisdale.
Levi Grisdale, the son of Solomon and Mary Grisdale, was born at Greystoke in 1783.
The Grisdales were an old Cumberland yeoman family from Matterdale. Levi was destined to serve in the cavalry and saw action against Napoleon’s forces in the Peninsular War (1808-1814) and also at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. An incident just after Christmas 1808 involving our hero trooper Grisdale is worth recounting in some detail.
On the morning of 29th December, 1808 a detachment of the Chasseurs-a-Cheval of the Imperial Guard, numbering about 550, and led by General Lefebvre crossed the River Esla at Benevente in Spain. General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes was one of Napoleon’s most loyal officers and regarded as a highly skilled horseman and gifted commander. Some sources rate him in the top four of French generals during the Napoleonic period. Born in 1773, he originally enlisted in December 1789 but twice his bourgeois parents purchased his release. After a third enlistment they conceded defeat.
He saw action in Belgium in 1798 and was then involved in a whole series of important conflicts across the length and breadth of Europe. He was made ADC to Napoleon when he became Premier Consul. In 1806 he was promoted to General-de-Brigade, and to General-de-Division in 1807, at the age of 34. He had never put a foot wrong and was, up to the time of crossing the River Esla, having a good war. Maybe he had become complacent, with his experience he should have sent scouts well ahead of his force to check for enemy troops in the vicinity. As it was, he was entirely unaware of a substantial body of enemy cavalry still present in the town. Having reached the opposite bank, the French were first attacked by the English 10th Hussars under the command of General Henry William Paget. Among the men of the 10th was our hero trooper Levi Grisdale, who, like the tough Cumbrian he was, got stuck in to the fray. The unfortunate General Lefebvre, was not only wounded but unable to defend himself having lost his sabre in the river during the action. He was subsequentally captured and the man credited with his capture was none other than trooper Grisdale. The 10th Hussars had a field day and captured a further 60 of General Lefebvre’s men, and other French casualties included a Lieutenant who was killed and two Captains who were wounded.
As a result of his capture by Levi Grisdale, General Lefebvre was brought to England as a prisoner of war. However, this country being a civilised nation, was not harsh on a prisoner of his rank and he was paroled at Cheltenham where he was eventually joined by his wife Stephanie. They were in demand socially and attended social events
around the district. As it happened, General Lefebvre was in possession of a fine signet ring of considerable value which had been given him years earlier by his Emperor, Napoleon.
In 1811, Lefebvre used this ring as a bribe to get away from parole in Cheltenham and he was able to escape back to France, where he rejoined his Division. He was soon in action again, including the disastrous Russian Campaign of 1812, but survived this and other conflicts, eventually to find himself on the greatest battlefield of the Napoleonic War, Waterloo, in 1815. By fate and coincidence also on the Waterloo battlefield among the thousands of allied soldiers, under the Duke of Wellington’s command, facing the French on those eventful days in mid-June was our Cumbrian hero trooper Levi Grisdale. He survived the battle and must have witnessed the scenes of utter devastation resulting from continous cannonade and musket shot being discharged against the close formations of troops who were bravely standing their ground. If there was such a thing back then as “post traumatic stress disorder”, and there probably was, it looks like Levi Grisdale was unaffected to any real degree for he served his King and Country for a further ten years, retiring in 1825 after 22 years of service. General Lefebrve was less fortunate, being on the losing side at Waterloo, he was out of favour with the new regime which followed Napoleon’s removal from power, and he had to flee to the United States. He lived there until 1821 by which time his wife had arranged for him to return to Amsterdam where he could wait for permission to return to French soil. In the Spring of 1821 he sailed for Europe but the ship on which he was aboard encountered bad weather on the approaches to the coast of southern Ireland and sank just off Kinsale and that was the end of General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes.
On the 28th July 1832 Levi Grisdale married a Penrith lass, Mary Western, some nineteen years his junior, at St Andrew’s Church, Penrith. Levi was shown as being a widower, but no details of his previous marriage have been found. The couple went on to have five children, three sons and two daughters. The last, John, born in 1846, when Levi was 62 years old. The family lived in Great Dockray, Penrith and Levi is shown as being employed as a gardener, certainly up to 1841, however, by 1851 he is shown as being a Chelsea Pensioner. This means he was an “out-pensioner”, that is, living at home and not at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. He finally died on 17th November 1855, aged 72 years and was buried in Christ Church burial ground, Penrith. His widow Mary continued to live in Great Dockray with daughter Mary Ann and sons Thomas, a Post Office clerk and John, a railway clerk. Her eldest son, Levi, a tailor, was married but unfortunately died in 1864 aged only 29 years. He too was buried at Christ Church and it was only when both widows died that a memorial was put up in the Cemetery.
It seems that from simple rural beginnings, Levi Grisdale led a very full and eventful life and after the horrors of war he saw some peace and family life in our town of Penrith. In my opinion, it is a great pity his memorial is becoming weather worn and illegible but even sadder is the fact that he has become something of a forgotten hero.
Author can be contacted via <c.fallowfield@blueyonder.co.uk >
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