Honoured at last in Spain

By James Bryce

A BRITISH soldier who died fighting Napoleon’s troops during the Peninsular War in Spain has been honoured in Andalucia.

Grenadier Guards officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Scrope Colquitt, died of fever after leading his troops in the liberation of Cadiz in 1812.

Now, 200 years after his death, distant relatives have gathered in the town of Alcala de Guadaira, near Sevilla, for the inauguration of a €10,000 monument in his memory.

Colquitt was laid to rest in the town despite locals refusing to allow his body to be buried in the local cemetery because he was an Anglican ‘heathen’.

He was forced to be buried in a different part of town, which later garnered the name La Cruz de Ingles.

The ceremony at the monument in La Cruz de Ingles included the strains of the Last Post, played by a Grenadier Guard.

One ancestor Nick Flynn, 47, who lives near Ronda, was overjoyed to be invited to the ceremony.

“It was an interesting event to attend because I didn’t know anything about this guy before,” Flynn, a first cousin five times removed, told the Olive Press.

“I am not going to pretend I got my hanky out and was overcome with emotion, but it was quite a stirring occasion and there was a certain feeling of pride.

“This was an Englishman fighting on the side of Spain against the French.

“Honouring him is a fantastic way to promote Anglo-Spanish relations,” he added.