_Supplementary Despatches, etc._ , xi. 622, 638, 657. The order for sending home these detachments from the Guards Battalions “originates in the reduction of the whole establishment of the Guards, and the consequent necessity of the Battalions in France bearing their proportion of the non-effectives. H.R.H. desires me to express his hope that this diminution of 400 Guards may not embarrass you in regard to the amount of reduction” (Major-General Sir H. Torrens to Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington: _ibid._, xi. 639). The detachments marched from Cambrai on March 15, 1817, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Hon. J. Walpole, Coldstream Guards. Captain Sowerby and Lieutenant Hervey were in charge of the Coldstream; and Assistant-Surgeon Smith, Coldstream Guards, accompanied the troops to Calais. ----- In June, 1818, Sir P. Maitland having been sent to Upper Canada as Lieut.-Governor of that province, Major-General Sir J. Lambert was appointed to the Guards Brigade at Cambrai; but as he was on leave, Colonel Woodford, Coldstream Guards, remained in temporary command until August. In June, also, Major-General Sir R. O'Callaghan replaced Sir J. Lambert as Brigadier of the 7th Brigade, and Sir C. Colville assumed command of the Second Division, vice Sir H. Clinton. The Band of the Grenadier Guards had been sent for a few months to Paris, during the autumn of 1815, and left London on the 1st of September, proceeding by Brighton to Dieppe. Next year, the Coldstream Band went to Cambrai, on the 10th of June, by Dover and Calais, and remained there till the following October.[105] ----- Footnote 105: For a short account of the Band of the Coldstream Guards, see Appendix No. V. ----- The health of the troops in France, during the three and a half years succeeding Waterloo, seems to have been satisfactory. By a return, dated Paris, July 15, 1816, it appears that the number of sick amounted to 1060 men in the whole British contingent, of which only 43 belonged to the Coldstream, out of a total strength of 1104 Officers and men belonging to the Battalion at that time.[106] The principal cause of illness arose from the prevalence of ophthalmia, which, beginning in Paris in the winter of 1815, continued to affect the men until they left the country in 1818. Numerous orders were issued to prevent the spread of this evil. ----- Footnote 106: _Supplementary Despatches, etc._ , xi. 439. ----- Two Officers belonging to the Regiment died in France during this period, viz. Lieutenant J. Buller, in Paris, in January, 1816, and Lieutenant A. Gordon, killed in a duel with a French Officer, at Cambrai, in April, 1818.