King's German Legion

King's German Legion
A line infantryman, light infantryman and hussar of the King's German Legion
Active	1803–1816
Country	Electorate of Hanover; since 1814 Kingdom of Hanover
Branch	British Army
Type	Artillery Cavalry Line infantry Light infantry
Size	approximately 14,000 [1]
Garrison/HQ	Infantry at Bexhill-on-Sea Cavalry at Weymouth, Dorset
Battle honours	Peninsular War Waterloo Battle of Venta del Pozo (1st and 2nd Light Infantry Battalion) Garcia Hernandez (1st Regiment of Dragoons ) Bodon (1st Regiment of Hussars) Barrosa (2nd Regiment of Hussars) Göhrde (3rd Regiment of Hussars)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Charles Alten Henry de Hinuber

The King's German Legion (KGL; German: Des Königs Deutsche Legion) was a British Army formation consisting of expatriate German soldiers which existed from 1803 to 1816. It achieved the distinction of being the only German military force to fight without interruption against the French and their allies during the Napoleonic Wars.

Formed within months of the dissolution of the Electorate of Hanover in 1803, the Legion was constituted as a mixed corps by the end of the year. Although the KGL never fought autonomously and remained a part of the British Army during the rest of the Napoleonic Wars, it played a vital role in several campaigns, most notably the Peninsular War, the Walcheren Campaign and the Hundred Days.

The Legion was disbanded in 1816. Many KGL units were incorporated into the Hanoverian Army, and became later a part of the Imperial German Army after the unification of Germany into the German Empire 1871. The British German Legion, recruited for the Crimean War, has sometimes been erroneously referred to as the "King's German Legion".^{[citation needed]}