What nationality was the unit who fought in the war in the 1807 - 1814 war against Napoleon?
De Watteville's Regiment De Watteville's Regiment was a Swiss regiment founded by Louis de Watteville and recruited from regiments that served between 1799 and 1801 in the Austrian army but in British pay. The troops then signed on as mercenaries, to be paid by the British. They fought in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), mainly around the Mediterranean, and were based in Malta and then in Egypt from 1801 to 1803, fighting in Sicily and Naples. The regiment fought and won the Battle of Maida, in Italy in July 1806. From 1811 to 1813 the unit served under Wellington in the Peninsular War in Spain, and defending Cadiz in the Siege of Cádiz. The regiment sailed to Canada in 1813 to fight in the War of 1812. The unit was retired at the end of the war and soldiers were given tracts of land in Canada.
British cavalry during World War I The British cavalry were the first British Army units to see action during the First World War. Captain Hornby of the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards is reputed to have been the first British soldier to kill a German soldier, using his sword, and Drummer Edward Thomas of the same regiment is reputed to have fired the first British shot shortly after 06:30 on 22 August 1914, near the Belgian village of Casteau. The following Battle of Mons was the first engagement fought by British soldiers in Western Europe since the Battle of Waterloo, ninety-nine years earlier. In the first year of the war in France nine cavalry brigades were formed for three British cavalry divisions. Other regiments served in six brigades of the two British Indian Army cavalry divisions that were formed for service on the Western Front. Three regiments also fought in the campaign in Mesopotamia, the only other theatre of the First World War where British cavalry served.