Seven Years War Military Expedition to Belle Ille 1761 Document to advance to Captain Alex, Wood of the 8th Regiment of Foot the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds. Authorized by “His Excellency Studholme Hodgson Col. Of the Fifth Regiment of Foot. Major General and commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces employed on an Expedition, &c.” (the capture of Belle Ille off the coast of Brittany). Also signed by Studholme Hodgson. Interesting manuscript document, size 20 x 32cm, in good condition. Note: The island was held by British troops from 1761, following its capture by this expedition until 1763, when it was returned to France in exchange for Minorca as part of the Peace of Paris. Field Marshal Studholme Hodgson (1708 – 20 October 1798) After serving as an Aide-de-Camp to the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy during the War of the Austrian Succession and at the Battle of Culloden during the Jacobite Rebellion. He went on to command the British expedition, which captured Belle Ille in June 1761 during the Seven Years' War so enabling the British Government to use the island as a bargaining piece at the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Captain Alexander Wood (1738-1769) Born in Ireland in 1738, the 19-year-old Alexander Wood started his military career with the 85th Foot (Crawford's Royal Volunteers) raised in 1757, but was commissioned captain of an independent company three years later which would indicate a very powerful and influential patron. His independent company was amalgamated 1758 into the 98th Foot (Grey's) and fought first at this Belle ille off the coast of France before being sent to the Caribbean where it served during the capture of Martinique and the siege of Havana, 1762.