It commemorates the last battle in which a King of England was present in person, the last in which the Order of Knighthood was conferred on the field. The actual command was in the hands of the veteran Earl of Stair, a soldier who had learned the art of war under Marlborough. He had commanded a brigade at Ramillies, and served on the great commander's staff at Blenheim, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. We were fighting in support of the claims of Maria Theresa to the throne of Austria. France, on the other hand, was supporting those of the House of Bavaria. Side by side with our own men fought the armies of Austria and Hanover. The field of battle was on the banks of the Main, midway between Darmstadt and Frankfort, hard by the village of Aschaffenburg, where, in the "Seven Weeks' War," the Prussians gained one of their many successes over the Germans of the Southern States. At Dettingen the brunt of the fighting fell on the British, whose losses far exceeded the combined casualties of the allies, the principal sufferers being the 3rd Dragoons, all their officers but two, and more than half their men, being killed or wounded. The heroism of Trooper Brown of this regiment has been handed down to this day, and King George, recognizing his valour, dubbed him Knight-Banneret at the close of the fight, the Commander-in-Chief (the Earl of Stair), and the Honourable J. Campbell, Colonel of the Scots Greys, being similarly honoured. Brown's deed is recorded in the regimental history, but it is little known outside the ranks of what is now the 3rd King's Own Hussars. Three times did this gallant regiment charge into the French massed infantry, outnumbering them four to one; thrice did they overthrow the enemy's horse. Their standards had been torn to ribbons, the staves shot through and riddled. At the close of one charge a colour fell from a dead Cornet's hand and lay abandoned on the ground. Trooper Brown dismounted to recover it, and, as he regained the saddle, a French trooper with a sabre-cut disabled his bridle-hand. His horse bolted with him into the midst of the French army, when the colour was torn from his grasp and borne away by a gendarme. Wounded and faint, but with the lust of battle strong upon him, the dragoon rallied to his flag, cut down the triumphant captor, then, gripping the broken staff between knee and saddle, bore it in safety to the skeleton squadrons of his own corps. Historians ridicule the part played by King George on the field of Dettingen, but we may rely upon it that the British army appreciated the kingly action when, at the close of the day, veteran Field-Marshal and wounded dragoon alike received from their Sovereign the accolade of honour. In these prosaic days the prosperous tradesman receives the knighthood, the wounded dragoon is relegated to the workhouse. CASUALTIES AT THE BATTLE OF DETTINGEN, JUNE 27, 1743.