The Waterloo 200 Charity
Waterloo 200 Ltd is the official body, recognised by the UK government, that supported the commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo during its bicentenary in 2015 and is now delivering the Age of Revolution Educational Legacy Project, of which this website is a key part.
To contact the Waterloo 200 charity, please email [email protected].
Background
In 1973 the Duke of Wellington founded the Waterloo Committee following a successful joint effort with Lord Anglesey to stop the building of a motorway across the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium. Since then the Waterloo Committee has continued to preserve and enhance the battlefield, encourage historical research and promote public education and appreciation of the history of the wars between Great Britain, her allies, and France. Waterloo 200 achieved charitable status in 2009.
Messages from the 8th & 9th Dukes of Wellington
‘I am often asked whether we should not now, in these days of European unity, forget Waterloo and the battles of the past. My reply is, history cannot be forgotten and we need to be reminded of the bravery of the thousands of men from many nations who fought and died in a few hours on 18th June 1815 and why their gallantry and sacrifice ensured peace in Europe for 50 years’.
His Grace the 8th Duke of Wellington, KG LVO OBE MC DL
The 8th Duke passed away on 31 December 2014. Waterloo 200 regrets that the most passionate supporter of the commemorations surrounding the bicentenary of Waterloo did not live to see the event itself. However his son, Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington OBE, is also a keen supporter of this work –
“I very much welcome the relaunch of the Waterloo 200 website on the 203rd anniversary of the Battle. The Age of Revolution is an exciting free educational legacy programme for all ages that combines the nation’s wide-ranging cultural and heritage collections with the latest digital technologies, historical research and expertise in teaching and learning. I hope that all visitors to this site will find it interesting and stimulating.”
Waterloo 200 Ltd is managed by a board of trustees and a CEO:
Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter KCVO, OBE, DL
Evelyn Webb-Carter is a retired Army Officer who served in the Grenadier Guards and was subsequently GOC London District and Major General Commanding the Household Division from 1997 to 2001. On leaving the Army he was Chief Executive of ABF the Soldiers’ Charity (formerly The Army Benevolent Fund) for ten years
He was appointed Chairman of The Waterloo Committee (United Kingdom) by the 8th Duke of Wellington in 2000 and remains as Chairman of a renamed Waterloo Association. In 2006 he established, with the Duke’s blessing, a linked organisation, Waterloo 200, to oversee the Bicentennial Commemorations in 2015. He remains as Chairman as the charity focusses on a wider remit of the period 1792 to 1848, the Age of Revolution.
He was educated at Wellington College and was the last Colonel of The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.
Timothy Cooke
Tim Cooke has been actively involved with Waterloo 200 from the outset and is co-Chairman, a director & trustee.
Graduating in 1981 with a degree in history, he joined Barclays where he worked for more than 20 years before moving to Lloyds Banking Group. He is now non executive Chairman of Lloyds Bank International Limited, the subsidiary which manages operations in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
He is a Chairman of the National Army Museum Development Trust, a trustee of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plaisterers. For a number of years he wrote articles for military history journals, although this has been subsumed by other commitments.
He was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours list.
Lady Jane Wellesley
Lady Jane Wellesley has been involved with W200 since its inception. She has always taken a strong interest in the history of her family, and her first book, Wellington: A Journey Through My Family was published in 2008. Re-issued for the Bicentenary of the battle of Waterloo in 2015, it is an account of the Dukes and their wives, from the 1st, her famous forebear, to the 8th, her father, who died aged 99, six months short of the commemorations for the Bicentenary. Her early career was in the art world, and she went on to work in broadcasting, for the BBC, Granada Television and later as an independent producer at Antelope Productions, and then Warner Sisters, a company she jointly owned and ran, that produced documentaries, comedy, and drama.
She now gives talks and lectures, and is working on a book about her paternal grandmother, the poet Dorothy Wellesley. She has been involved at various times with the following professional bodies:- Council member for PACT (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television), Member of Arts Council Production Committee, Advisory Panel of National Film School, Board of LFVDA (London Film and Video Development Agency). As well as being a Trustee of Waterloo 200, she is Founder of The Marie Colvin Journalists’ Network (MCJN), set up in memory of the distinguished war correspondent killed in Syria, and is a Trustee of The Circle, Annie Lennox’s charity, under which the network sits.
Michael Crumplin (FRCS Eng. and Ed.), FRHistS, FHS
Of an army family and medical background, Michael was born in Scotland, educated at Wellington College and studied medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. He worked as a consultant upper gastrointestinal and general surgeon in North Wales, took interest in medical education and was Chair of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons. He worked a good deal with cancer and established an outpatient cancer unit at his hospital. He received an honorary FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Before and after retirement, he took an interest in the human aspects of conflict. He has written five books which focus on medicine and surgery, in both the army and navy during the French wars (1792-1815). He now works on medical aspects of wars from 1759-2015. He has written five chapters, many articles and since 2000, delivered around 400 lectures. He was education lead for Waterloo200, the honorary treasurer and trustee for the Waterloo Association for 12 years. Since 2015, with the generous support of a local business man, he has donated his medical collection and set up a unique museum of surgery in the farm, used as the principal field hospital during the battle of Waterloo – at Mont St Jean.
Victoria Nielson
Victoria Nielson was invited to join the Waterloo 200 charity formed to deliver the Waterloo 200 international commemorations in 2015 and is the Chief Executive Officer. Between 1993 and 1996 she was at Morgan Stanley London. She moved to Hong Kong in 1996 to take up the role of Assistant Vice President, Head of Marketing & Communications for Morgan Stanley TSS Asia-Pacific and later Morgan Stanley / Chase Manhattan TSS Asia Pacific. In 2001, upon her return to London, Victoria became Vice President, Head of Marketing & Communications for JPMorgan Chase TSS EMEA. Victoria left the city in 2005. She is also a Director of MV Events, which has organized high profile events on the Mall, St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle.
