A special unit

The last few days have seen me painting another unit for the Estavian Imperial army, interrupted by Britcon yesterday.

This unit was a late addition, when I realised more cavalry was needed and enough figures were available. Having planned out the rest of the army, this evolution was left without a name, despite the troop type and uniforms being decided. The colours had evolved from a combination of crimson from Estavia and green of chevauxleger. The colours started to suggest an almost Irish theme. It was then the pieces fell into place. They would be the O'Hara Chevauxleger, named for my friend Danny O'Hara.

I met Danny a few years after moving to Cornwall; we were initially introduced as when outlining my interests in periods, it was suggested "you need to speak to Danny." Aside from our overwhelming mutual interest in the SYW / C18th we discovered we shared a taste for the obscure and unusual in wargames periods and armies.

We played many games, although like me Danny preferred running and umpiring to playing and we organised some truly huge games, such as a giant pirate extravaganza when halfway through the game, realised we were both using different versions of Peter Pig rules!

When I moved from Cornwall, we kept in touch and stayed at each others for local shows, but after moving to the midlands, we lost touch to some extent. I last saw him on a family holiday to Cornwall and we agreed to keep in touch.

In 2019, after a traumatic personal bereavement and the sudden loss of an online acquaintance in the USA, I rang Danny but got no answer. Shortly after that I happened to purchase something from eBay and noticed the postcode matched Danny's. The items I realised could well be Danny's; thinking he was maybe downsizing, I checked the name and recognised it as one of his friends. A search revealed his funeral memorial at the age of 50.

I confess it really hit me. I'd had vague plans of involving him and others in the Soldier King campaign, after some solo work to establish the ground rules (much like Tony Bath's Hyboria). But of course I needed to paint the armies and map out places and.....

While I'm well aware no one lives forever, I assumed I'd have more time. Danny was into the idea of Imagi-Nations as much as painstaking historical research. He told me him and his brother had created C18th Imaginary armies using Airfix George Washington figures.

While Martin Goddard has immortalised him as a Peter Pig collectable miniature, I decided to include him in the SK campaign as the chief of a unit. Danny was proud of his Irish ancestry; what better way to commemorate him than as a "Wild Goose" in my analogue of an Austrian army (Danny like me was an Austrophile for the SYW period).

So I present the Chevauxleger of Patrick Domnal ( "mad Dan") O'Hara with their motto:

"Is iad gníomhais fir a oidhreacht" or "Homo facta sunt legatum suum"

(Their flag will be green with a yellow cross and each motto on alternate sides - or that's the plan!)