German Sausages and Flying Ambulances

When I first saw the term “flying ambulance” I thought it was something that had originated in Africa, or in the Australian outback, a vehicle for flying doctors. In fact it goes back much further than that. To the Napoleonic Wars, as I discovered only recently.

I was researching the Battle of Waterloo for my book, A Lady for Lord Randall, and it was impossible not to think about the casualties. More than 40,000 soldiers died on the battlefield and given the state of medical knowledge at that time, it is debateable which was worse, to be killed outright or seriously wounded. Dr Howard Martin has written two wonderfully detailed books on the subject (Wellington’s Doctors and Napoleon’s Doctors) if you want to find out a lot more fascinating details. One thing that became clear to me is that in the treatment and care of injured soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars the French had the advantage. Bonaparte was very forward-thinking when it came to the health of his army. He preferred prevention to medical treatment, he advocated good food, good hygiene, fresh air and high morale. He also supported the use of quinine and…

Source: German Sausages and Flying Ambulanc

Margaret Tolmie – another ‘Waterloo Child’

All Things Georgian

The Battle of Waterloo was hard fought, and hard won by the Allied Forces. In the aftermath, as night fell, the men who were still able to answered the roll call of their names. The women travelling in the train of the army listened for news, desperately wanting to hear their loved ones listed as living.

The Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815 by Denis Dighton (painted in 1816)
NT; (c) National Trust, Plas Newydd; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

One such woman was young Mrs Tolmie: daughter of a corporal in the Royal North British Dragoons (the Scots Greys), she had travelled with the army, working as a nurse in Portugal and tending to the sick and injured. One man, whose life she had saved, married her in between battles. That man was Adam Tolmie, either a trooper in the same regiment as her father by the time…

View original post 1,234 more words

Two ‘Waterloo Children’

All Things Georgian

The Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler II

On the 19th June 1815, the day after the battle of Waterloo, a daughter was born to a serving officer of the British army and his wife at Brussels, named in honour of the battle and the victory as Waterloo Deacon.

Her father was Ensign Thomas Deacon of the 2nd Battalion of the 73rd Foot; he had not been present at Waterloo having been injured at the battle of Quatre Bras on the 16th June. His wife, Martha, together with their three children, had accompanied her husband to war. Martha, formerly Martha Durand, daughter of John Hodson Durand whose own nabob father had acquired a large fortune in India, had married Thomas Deacon at St. George’s, Hanover Square, 31st August, 1809.

The following is taken from the account of Thomas Morris who served alongside Deacon at Quatre Bras.

Ensign Deacon, of our…

View original post 1,116 more words

Two Nerdy History Girls: Royal Waterloo Bath—from the Archives

Originally posted on Two Nerdy History Girls.

A great many structures were named after the 18 June 1815 Battle of Waterloo, whose 200th anniversary we commemorate this week. Many still exist.  This doesn’t.

Plate 34.—ROYAL WATERLOO BATH.

This very elegant floating bath is stationed near the north end of the Waterloo-bridge, and has recently been built and completed with entirely new and substantial materials, in a style of superior accommodation, at a very considerable expense: it contains a plunging-bath, 24 feet long by 8 feet wide, and two private baths, 10 feet long by 8 feet wide. The depth may be regulated at pleasure by machinery, which raises or depresses the bottom as required, secured by cross timbers, and bound with iron. To each of the baths are attached…

via Two Nerdy History Girls: Royal Waterloo Bath—from the Archives.

The Humbley siblings: named for victory

All Things Georgian

William Humbley, an army officer, gave his new-born son a name almost impossible to live up to: William Wellington Waterloo Humbley. Even more than that Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, stood as the child’s godfather. Little William Wellington Waterloo was born on the actual day of the battle, the 18th June 1815, at Sandgate in Kent according to information given in the Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900, but was not baptized until nearly a year later.

Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington by Richard Cosway, 1808.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

William Wellington Waterloo, of Eynesbury (now part of St Neot’s but then a neighbouring village), was baptized on the 10^th June 1816 at the parish church in Boxworth, Cambridgeshire. His father, William Humbley of the 95^th Foot, had served in both the Peninsular War campaigns and at the Battle of Waterloo (the 95^th was…

View original post 991 more words

The Expectant Hope of Victory. | Adventures In Historyland

Originally posted on Adventures In Historyland.

Dawn of Waterloo. Lady Butler.

The day dawned fresh and cool after the rain which had stopped some time after first light, only fitful showers reimagined and passed across the sky as a farewell gesture from the storm. The sultry heat of the past three days had broken and clouds were still thick in the sky. Slats of sunlight shone down on the scene below.

In the daylight the battlefield unfolded itself to the eye. On either side of the main Brussels Chaussée were wide expanses of open fields bordered by ditches and hedges, the crops were ready to harvest and stood as tall as a man. To the east was the Bois de Paris, and to the north, hidden by Mont St Jean ridge, was the Bois de Soignes. The ridge rose distinctively but undramatically up from a valley formed by the rival height of Trimontiau, where advance elements of the French army had spent the night.

Regiments were coming awake and going through their practised routines as if nothing of moment was about to occur. Breakfast was put on the boil, equipment checked and cleaned, picquet’s posted, foragers sent out, drums and bugle calls sounding for the morning parade, parade state given and recorded, and half rations of alcohol were administered. Meanwhile the senior officers waited for orders. Though the procedure was slightly different in each army, military life has a pattern that most soldiers recognise.

Many had awoken with premonitions of death, wills were hurriedly written after stand too. Soon slips of paper were being passed around. They all said similar things, give this to my loved ones if I don’t make it, and I’ll do the same for you. In the ranks of the British contingent everything was…

via The Expectant Hope of Victory. | Adventures In Historyland.

A selection of Waterloo memorabilia.

Adventures In Historyland

In 1815 the Duke of Wellington was the man everybody wanted to know about, though even before Waterloo his face had already been glazed onto plates and China tea services, now he had defeated Napoleon and his place in history was secure and so was his celebrity.

View original post 663 more words

“Will it Never be Day?” | Adventures In Historyland

Originally posted on Adventures In Historyland.

On the night of the 17th of June, the Duke of Wellington waited to hear if Blücher would agree to march and join him at Mont St Jean.

The Inn at Waterloo where Wellington had his headquarters the night before the Battle.

Decisions in the night.

Lord Uxbridge rode into the village of Waterloo, some miles in the rear of the army’s encampment at Mont St Jean, after dark, wet and tired from his exertions with the rearguard. Colonel Campbell of the Duke’s household staff had been instructed to bring Wellington’s baggage and necessaries to the village that morning. Each house along the small front street was occupied by a general officer. Their names were chalked above their doors and light could be seen in the windows. The rain was still falling in unimaginable quantity, and thunder boomed from the sky, lit every so often with the broad flash of sheet lightning.

Finding the door marked in running chalk, “His Grace the Duke of Wellington” he made his way inside and after removing his shako he announced himself, he deposited what must have amounted to half the quantity of the channel from his uniform to the floor and took his ease by the fire.

The atmosphere was much as it had been in Brussels on the 15th, only without the party veneer to hide it, things were tense and the fate of the campaign was riding on the next few hours till dawn. De Lancey had ridden ahead from Genappes to Mont St Jean. Wellington had filed the place away in his mind the year before on a tour of the Netherlands. At that time he had not yet wound down from his six years campaigning in Portugal and Spain, and his practiced eye for a naturally strong defensive position was still…

via “Will it Never be Day?” | Adventures In Historyland.

Massive 13-metre Waterloo Cartoon emerges from Royal Academy stores for Waterloo Bicentenary | Culture24

Originally posted on Culture24

Daniel Maclise, RA, Cartoon for ‘The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher After the Battle of Waterloo’ (1858-1859) (detail)
© Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited

At more than 13 metres wide and three metres high, The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo, 1858-1859, is also one of the largest and most detailed cartoons to survive in the UK.

Completed when the Battle of Waterloo was still in living memory, it took Maclise more than a year to complete and involved extensive research.

The artist studied eye-witness accounts to ensure his depiction was plausible and at one point Queen Victoria and Prince Albert even became involved in the process, using their contacts in Germany to gather information from Prussian officers who were present on the day.

The resulting work, which was made as a study for a fresco painting that now hangs in the art gallery of the House of Lords, is still remarkable for its lack of triumphalism and the stoicism of Wellington and Blücher when faced with the reality and tragedy of war.

It was rightly considered a masterpiece of its time, bought by the Royal Academy in 1870 – the year of Maclise’s death – and shown at Burlington House until the 1920s. But the fragility of the artwork means it has remained in storage for much of the last century.

Now, after an Arts Council funded conservation, the vast work is about to be displayed again in a brace of…

via Massive 13-metre Waterloo Cartoon emerges from Royal Academy stores for Waterloo Bicentenary | Culture24.

The Doubts of the Duke of Wellington.

Adventures In Historyland

In April 1815 the holiday atmosphere in Brussels reached its peak.

View original post 2,037 more words

Blessing or Curse? | Adventures In Historyland

The British army in the light of Waterloo.

“As a battle of science, it was demonstrative of no manoeuvre” wrote Sir Harry Smith sometime between 1820 and 1848. Writing in July of 1815 Baron Marbot was incredulous at the defeat and confirmed that “We were manoeuvred like so many pumpkins”. Smith went on to say “It was no Salamanca or Vitoria, were science was so beautifully exemplified: it was as a stand up fight between two pugilists “Mill away” until one is beaten. The Battle of Waterloo, with all it’s political glory has destroyed the field movement of the British Army. So scientifically laid down by Dundas, so improved by that hero of war and drill, Sir John Moore. All that light troop duty that had taught, by which the world, through the medium of the Spanish war was saved, has been replaced by the most heavy of manoeuvres, by squares, centre formations, and moving in masses, which require time to collect and equal time to extend; and all because the Prussians and the Russians did not know how to move quicker, we, forsooth must adapt to their ways…”

The operational tactics of the British army post 1815 can be summarised by well over 30 Squares at Waterloo and a single line at Balaclava. The traditions of the British army were born in 1815, throughout the 19th century it took its character from the exploits of the national contingent at Mont St Jean. Determination, courage, stolidity, resilience, the rock hard determination to stand unflinching against all odds. The strange thing is that he opposite was true previously. All through the 18th century, when the bedrock for the traditions of Waterloo was set down, from 1701 to 1814, the focus was on amphibious landings, offensive movement and increasingly open formations, as the experiences of war in America altered strategic thinking. By 1854, the lessons of the 18th century had…

Read more: Blessing or Curse? | Adventures In Historyland.

---

 

Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler Print by FirstNightVintage
View other Battle Posters at Zazzle.com

---

Hunt is on for Battle of Waterloo descendants for 200th anniversary in 2015 | Waterloo 200 | 1815 – 2015

First Night History

Prints of Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler are available to buy at FirstNightVintage

Related

• Battle of Waterloo website

---

Originally posted on Waterloo 200 | 1815 – 2015.

A call is going out to the nation and beyond to find descendants of those who fought in the Battle of Waterloo, the last great conflict of the age of the sword, cannon and musket in Western Europe, ahead of the 200th anniversary of the Battle in 2015.

On 18th June 1815, one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever was fought by the Duke of Wellington and his allied army, bringing to an end a long campaign against the might of Napoleon Bonaparte. Over rolling countryside between two ridges, 11 miles south of Brussels, the entire course of European history changed as Napoleon was defeated, ending his leadership of the French Empire. Waterloo literally means ‘wet meadow’ and the condition of the…

View original post 70 more words

c. 1858: Photos of Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars

Grenadier Burg, 24th Regiment of the Guard, 1815
IMAGE: BROWN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Napoléon Bonaparte’s final defeat was the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Even after his death in 1821, the surviving soldiers of Grande Armée revered his historic leadership. Each year on May 5, the anniversary of Napoléon’s death, the veterans marched to Paris’ Place Vendôme in full uniform to pay respects to their emperor.

These photographs were taken on one of these occasions, possibly in 1858. All the men — at this time in their 70s and 80s — are wearing the Saint Helena medals, issued in August 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the revolution and the empire.

These are the only surviving images of veterans of the Grande Armée and the Guard actually wearing their original uniforms and insignia…

via c. 1858: Photos of Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars.

English Historical Fiction Authors: The Battle of Waterloo: Did the Weather Change History?

Background: The Battle of Waterloo was fought south of Brussels between the Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and the 72-year-old General Blücher from Prussia, and the French under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte. The French defeat at Waterloo brought an end to 23 years of war starting with the French Revolutionary wars in 1792 and continuing through the Napoleonic Wars. There was an eleven-month respite with Napoleon forced to abdicate and exiled to the island of Elba. The unpopularity of Louis XVIII, however, and the social and economic instability of France brought Napoleon back to Paris in March 1815. The Allies declared war once again. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo marked the end of the so-called ‘100 Days,’ the Emperor’s final bid for power, and the final chapter in his remarkable career.

Why did Napoleon lose?

The battle was closely fought; either side could have won, but mistakes in leadership, communication, and judgment led, in the end, to the French defeat. Wellington said his victory was…

Read more: English Historical Fiction Authors: The Battle of Waterloo: Did the Weather Change History?

Hunt is on for Battle of Waterloo descendants for 200th anniversary in 2015 | Waterloo 200 | 1815 – 2015

Prints of Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler are available to buy at FirstNightVintage

Related

• Battle of Waterloo website

---

Originally posted on Waterloo 200 | 1815 – 2015.

A call is going out to the nation and beyond to find descendants of those who fought in the Battle of Waterloo, the last great conflict of the age of the sword, cannon and musket in Western Europe, ahead of the 200th anniversary of the Battle in 2015.

On 18th June 1815, one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever was fought by the Duke of Wellington and his allied army, bringing to an end a long campaign against the might of Napoleon Bonaparte. Over rolling countryside between two ridges, 11 miles south of Brussels, the entire course of European history changed as Napoleon was defeated, ending his leadership of the French Empire. Waterloo literally means ‘wet meadow’ and the condition of the ground on the day was such that shoes and cannon balls simply disappeared by their hundreds into the mud.

Though the Duke was outnumbered in both men and cannon, his tactical skill and staying power resulted in an outcome that decided the future of Europe, becoming a milestone in…

via Hunt is on for Battle of Waterloo descendants for 200th anniversary in 2015 | Waterloo 200 | 1815 – 2015.