Unlike also the custom in Britain at the time it was issued, the medal remained the property of the soldier, and if he left the military service, he was still allowed to wear it. It could not, however, under any circumstances, be transferred from one soldier to another, but after the death of the first recipient of it, it was ordered that it should remain in his family as an heirloom. The Hanoverian troops, excluding those of the King's German Legion, present on the 16, 17 and 18 June at Battle of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, under the command of General Charles Alten, amounted to almost 16,900 men, equivalent to 18% of Wellington's Allied Army.