John Hussey’s armour was poorly made to keep cost down. Sadly he ended up paying the ultimate price!
A Roundhead musket killed Royalist cavalry officer John Hussey, of Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire, while he was defending the town of Gainsborough on 27 July 1643.
His breastplate and buff coat – complete with bullet holes – bring to life the reality of the battlefield. The angle of the shot indicates he was shot from a greater height, perhaps from horseback.
“Some of the swords have got nicks out of them where they’ve been used in anger but you don’t see breastplates that have got the actual musket ball holes in them,”
“Nor are you usually able to put that musket hole to the leather coat that was worn behind it and to be able to put a name and a face to that character.” – Michael Constantine of the National Civil War Centre.
A musket ball penetrated the upper rim of his steel breastplate and buff coat and entered on the right of his upper chest. It carried fragments of metal, leather and cloth into the chest cavity, tearing and collapsing his right lung. There is no evidence of an exit wound to his back. This is the brutal reality of war.
The complete uniform of John Hussey was loaned to the National Civil War Centre in Newark for a couple of years as part of the Battle Scarred exhibition in 2016 but is now back on display at Doddington Hall.
Find out more about Doddington Hall.
