Colonel Christian, Baron von Ompteda, Brigade Commander.
Four Line Battalions of the K.G.L. On disbandment of the Hanoverian Army in July 1803, following the Convention of Artlenberg, Ompteda joined his friend Charles von Alten in England in the October to reconstitute Hanoverian forces here. On the 5th November, 1803 Ompteda’s former Foot Guards became the 1st Line Battalion of the King’s German Legion (K.G.L.) Commanded by Colonel von Langwerth with Captain von Ompteda as second-in-command.
Hilsea Barracks near Portsmouth was used to establish the new Battalion/s until the summer of 1804. In the August the newly formed units moved to Bexhill which became a KGL Infantry Depot. Captain Ompetda tells us in his diary ‘The people at this place and about the neighbourhood generally seem to look at us much as we do on Cossacks…The gentry around called at the camp. They seem to be beginning to discover we are not quite outlandish bears’. Violent storms in October 1804 flooded the camp and delayed hut-building. Bad conditions and ill-health necessitated Captain Ompteda seeking quarters at Woodsgate Farm owned by the Lansdale family. On the 31st December, 1804 he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and Commander of the 1st Line Battalion.