News
Reenactors
March 12, 2017 - The Chairman
Maybe reenactors and their activities are not your style and Serjeant Gibson is sceptical. However I have just come across a very good bit of film on reenactment of Waterloo where most of the talking is by our own resident surgeon, Mick Crumplin. I really recommend you look at the clip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAb-RyDiPn8. It’s Mick at […]
The Surgeon’s Blade: Mick Crumplin’s new Medical Blog
March 10, 2017 - Mick Crumplin
Mick Crumplin introduces his new medical blog for Waterloo 200 How many military historians properly understand the real sinews of war? The human aspects of conflict are some of the most fascinating, appalling and amazing in terms of what redcoats and matelots had to go through and sometimes would survive beyond all expectations. On the […]
The Surgeon’s Blade: Wellington’s Scottish Doctors
March 10, 2017 - Mick Crumplin
Many well-known doctors in the British armed services have for centuries come from Scotland. In the eighteenth century, the excellent parish school system educated many young men, who then took advantage of the generous post school educational opportunities north of the border. One such was Sir James McGrigor from Aberdeen, who worked closely with Wellington […]
Russia against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven
March 6, 2017 - The Chairman
Published by Allen Lane and Penguin Books ISBN: 978-0-141-98460-5 This book was put in my Christmas stocking by my wife and she seldom selects books on Military History as he is fed up with books everywhere in this house. I recently finished the book and I must say I have seldom found a book so […]
Age of Revolution – Haiti
March 5, 2017 - The Chairman
When we decided on the phrase “Age of Revolution” for the overall theme of Waterloo 200 going forward we included the period from the American Revolution ie 1775. However on viewing the material this now brings into play I was startled to see the Haitian Revolution of 1791 to 1804 is to be included. I […]
Sleep with history at Hougoumont
March 1, 2017 - The Chairman
Recently I and my wife took the widow of Brigadier Professor Richard Holmes to stay a few nights in the Farm at Hougoumont. Serjeant Gibson came along too to protect us from the ghosts. He, Richard not Serjeant Gibson, had been a prime mover in the saving of this important site. Until he turned his energy […]
Blücher’s Elephant
February 27, 2017 - The Chairman
The remarkable Blücher was the major influence in the successful 1814 campaign in which eventually the Allies occupied Paris but he did have problems. At one stage after the 1806-7 defeat of Prussia by Napoleon he suffered a breakdown, a side effect of which was to have hallucinations about giving birth to an elephant! In […]
St Helena found to be useful
February 15, 2017 - The Chairman
Am reading Candice Millard’s book on Winston Churchill’s captivity during the Boer War “Hero of The Empire” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/hero-empire-making-winston-churchill-candice-millard-biography-history-book-review and it mentions that during that war about 5,000 Boer prisoners were incarcerated on the island. Brian Unwin in his excellent book “Terrible Exile” tells us that several hundred died on the island and are buried there. […]
Marengo’s trotters reunited
February 11, 2017 - The Chairman
Recently Christopher Joll, late of The Life Guards, managed to photograph together the two front hooves of Marengo. Both are featured in our 200 objects but they are not together. See http://ageofrevolution.org/200-object/marengos-hoof-snuffbox/ and http://ageofrevolution.org/200-object/horses-hoof-snuff-mill/ The photograph shows the hooves and are in size and shape identical although the colour is different, which is normal particularly as […]
Poor Boy – Cornet Alexander Hay of Nunraw
February 9, 2017 - The Chairman
I was at Waterloo last week staying at the Landmark Trust apartment, more about that later. However on one of our expeditions we visited the Church at Waterloo opposite The Wellington Museum and there we saw the memorial to Cornet Alexander Hay of Nunraw. Of interest to us as he is a kinsman of my […]
