The Surgeon’s Blade: The curious case of Worsley’s balls
April 13, 2017 - Mick Crumplin in News & Blog Posts, The Surgeon's Blade
Worsley’s Balls
These must be one (or two!) of the weirdest relics of the Napoleonic War. Lieutenant Thomas Taylor Worsley, a Yorkshireman from Hovingham, was adjutant and a junior officer in the prodigious 95th Rifles – 3rd battalion.
There were only two companies of this battalion at Waterloo. They fought with General Adam’s brigade, on Wellington’s right centre, along with the 52nd and 71st Light Infantry.
Three years before Waterloo, during the punishing 3rd siege of the border town of Badajoz, in Spain, Worsley, whilst in a storming party received a spent ball in the left side of his neck. This tracked around under the skin and damaged one of his neck muscles, so turning his head to the right. At Waterloo, miraculously surviving another spent ball injury, the same type of injury, but on the opposite side, restored his head to its normal position!
His niece was the last family member to possess the two French balls that wounded him. She kept them in a horn box. This strange couple of relics are on display at the Surgical Museum at Mont St Jean Farm, in Waterloo. To survive two neck wounds is remarkable, but to have mirror-image injuries like this is almost beyond belief.
Mick Crumplin is the author of The Bloody Fields of Waterloo: Medical Support at Wellington’s Greatest Battle. Email [email protected] for more information.
