Officer’s sword, 51st Foot, 1809 (c); blade is curved, flat backed, unfullered with a spear point, and is double edged for the last 10 in; steel stirrup guard; steel hilt mounts and shield-shaped langets; wooden grip, covered with fish skin or sharkskin with three ornamental rivets; the 51st became light infantry in 1809 and, like other elite regiments, adopted their own pattern for field and flank company officers; this sword belonged to Lt Benjamin Buck Hawley, 51st Light Infantry, aide de camp to Lord Hill at Waterloo, who joined the regiment in 1807. 
Associated with the Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo (1815).