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The battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June, 1815 ending in the total defeat of the French forces led by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) by the combined armies of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) and the Prussian field marshall, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742-1819).

The Battle of Waterloo, also of Ligny and Quatre-Bras described by ... a near observer ... [A narrative by C. A. Eaton, with a sketch by J. Waldie. With other matter... from sketches by Captain G. Jones.] Tenth edition, enlarged and corrected, (London, 1817). G.5651 
Images Online

An interesting insight into conflicting political and personal feelings in the aftermath of the battle can be found in two letters sent by the British politician George Canning (1770-1827) to the Portuguese general Colonel Dom Miguel Pereira Forjaz, 9th Count of Feira (1769-1827). Canning had been British Ambassador to Portugal since November 1812, tasked primarily with improving relations with the Portuguese government. When Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba on 26 February, 1815, the Portuguese refused a British government request to provide troops for the anti-Napoleonic alliance. Canning did his utmost to persuade the Portuguese to cooperate right up until the final victory at Waterloo. That the British were a little displeased with the Portuguese is reflected in Canning’s letter to Colonel Forjaz dated 5 July, 1815 only 17 days after the battle.

As an Englishman, & a friend of the Duke of Wellington, it is necessary to say how much I rejoice on this glorious occasion. I would that I felt no cause for regret as a good Portuguese! But it is mortifying that Portugal should stand forth in the face of Europe the only Power that has directly declined to take any part in the contest so happily begun, &, I think we may say, concluded!

Canning’s understandable triumphalism was to be cut short by the news that his cousin, Charles Fox Canning, one of Wellington’s aide-de-camps, had been killed at Waterloo. In a letter to Forjaz dated 13 July, 1815 Canning writes:

I find on my table your very kind letter of yesterday. The loss of my cousin was indeed a great drawback to me on the joy which the Victory of Waterloo (the final salvation of Europe) was calculated to inspire. He had gone through all Lord Wellington’s Campaigns with Him from the beginning to the end of the Peninsular War, and hitherto had partaken of the good fortune of His Commander, - never being even touched by a ball. In this last battle the Duke exposed himself the whole day to the very front of danger. In consequence but one of his aide-de-camps escaped unhurt. My cousin was one of two who had the glory of falling by his side.

Although the display of grief is quite formal you can still get an idea of Canning, in essence, trying to balance national political interest with a deep personal grief, his own, and that of his cousin’s family.

the good character which I had received of him from Lord Wellington, justified & proved by the manner of his death, makes me deeply sensible of the loss sustained by his family.

The images of the archives are taken from the George Canning Collection, Add MS 89143, which is being catalogued by the author of this blog.

Jonathan Pledge 

Curator, Modern Archives and Manuscripts

Further reading

Explore Archives and Manuscripts

A free display, Waterloo: War and Diplomacy, runs until 6 September 2015 in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery.

To celebrate the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Strand Bridge was opened by the Prince of Wales (later George IV) and the Duke of Wellington on 18 June 1817. The bridge soon became known as Waterloo Bridge. This hand-coloured etching and aquatint was published by Rudolph Ackermann on 21 June 1817 and is part of King George III’s Topographical Collection.

Maps K.Top.22.40.b. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT and DUKE OF WELLINGTON &c. &c. &c. First visit to Waterloo Bridge, on the 18th of June, 1817 (Taken from Somerset House). Published June 21st 1817 by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand. Etching and aquatint with hand colouring. 

The vantage point depicted is unusual as it conflates a view across the bridge with another along the River Thames to Westminster Abbey and beyond. This perspectival trick allows the viewer to take in two aspects of the event. The Prince travelled along the River Thames in the royal barge surrounded by a flotilla of boats, before landing at Waterloo Bridge. The royal barge can be seen to the left in the foreground with the other boats moving along the Thames from Whitehall to the right. The Prince was met by the Duke of York and the Duke of Wellington and was escorted across the bridge surrounded by soldiers, before returning to Whitehall by water. The perspective employed in this print allows the viewer to experience the narrative of the event and follow the route which the Prince took from Whitehall by boat and across the bridge on horseback.

The print also enables to viewer to link the celebrations to the Battle of Waterloo itself. Smoke billowing from below the bridge evokes cannon fire while the marching soldiers call to mind the battlefield, reminding the spectator of the military success being commemorated. The celebration, and indeed the print itself, continue the tradition of the use of the River Thames as a site of drama and the setting for grand military and royal performances.

Another view from King George III’s Topographical Collection shows Ackermann’s shop at 101 Strand, from where this print would have been sold.

Maps K.Top.27.16.1. ACKERMANN'S REPOSITORY OF ARTS, 101 STRAND. Drawn by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson. Published by Rudolph Ackerman, January 1809. Etching and aquatint with hand-colouring.

Ackermann’s shop was only a few metres away from Somerset House and the site of the new bridge. A map published on 1 July 1817 by William Darton shows new Waterloo Bridge.

Maps 198.b.72. An entire new plan of the cities oif London & Westminster, & borough of Southwark; the West India Docks, Regents Park, New Bridges &c &c with the whole of the new improvements of the present time. Published 1 July 1817 by William Darton.

It is possible to see just how close 101 Strand was to the bridge. It is between the letters ‘S’ and ‘R’ of ‘STRAND’ on the map, marked as (a). The vantage point from which the view is taken at Somerset House is marked as (b). The new Waterloo Bridge is marked as (c) and Whitehall as (d).

Ackermann’s print of Waterloo Bridge was published just three days after its opening, showing his ability to  respond quickly to popular subject-matter and events. It was only available with hand-colouring and sold for four shillings. In reality, it is likely that Ackermann had ordered printmakers to begin working on the copper printing plate before the event, as etching, aquatinting, printing and hand-colouring was a lengthy process. Similarly, Ackermann didn’t advertise the print in his Repository of Arts until 1 July (Vol IV, 1 July 1817, No XIX) showing that it wasn’t available until after this date, despite the plate being lettered in June. This accounts for the time it took to print the image and then add hand-colouring.

Alexandra Ault
Cataloguer of Coloured Views, King's Topographical Collection

A free display “Waterloo: War and Diplomacy” runs until 6 September 2015 in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery.

John Malcolm left his school and family in Scotland at the age of 13 and joined the East India Company. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Governor of Bombay.  During the Mysore war of 1798, he formed a lifelong friendship with the governor-general Lord Wellesley’s brother Arthur, the future Duke of Wellington.

After spending time in Persia as a British envoy and then returning to India, Malcolm returned to England for five years’ furlough. Wellington advised him to try to get into Parliament. 

Just after the Battle of Waterloo, Malcolm received a personal invitation from the Duke of Wellington to join him in Paris to celebrate the victory.  On his way to Paris, in July 1815, Malcolm passed by Waterloo. From his diaries we can read his account of the visit of what had already become in a month ‘one of the most celebrated battle-fields ever named in the history of the world’.

  

The Battle of Waterloo from The Wars of Wellington, a narrative poem by Dr. S. (London, 1819)  Images Online

On the morning of 20 July, Malcolm rode out to Waterloo. It was with no ordinary emotion that he contemplated the scene, an expanse of farm-land which had suddenly risen out of  obscurity. His feelings were those of mingled exultation and regret. A glorious victory had been achieved, and he had not been there even to witness it.

"As I approached this field of fame," he wrote in his journal, “my feelings of exultation as an Englishman were checked by a recollection that I had personally no share of the glory of that wonderful day. To have been even a spectator in such an action must give fame for life." General Adam sent his aide-de-camp to explain to Malcolm “the particulars of the position of the two armies". Malcolm spent three hours on the field, and jotted down in his note-book many particulars of the great battle.

Malcolm was one of the first tourists visiting Waterloo’s battlefield and his account shows an early sacralisation of the site. The Battle modified the itinerary of European travel from Britain after 1815, with Thomas Cook later promoting it as a destination. Even today Waterloo is still one of Belgium’s most important tourism sites.

Having thus visited Waterloo, Malcolm proceeded onward to Paris to spend about a month with the Duke of Wellington.  His old friend received Malcolm cordially and invited him to all the celebratory activities being held in the French capital.

After his return to London, Malcolm became a literary celebrity on the publication of his History of Persia.  He sailed again for India the following year.

Malcolm eventually returned to the UK and became a Member of Parliament in 1831, supporting his friend Wellington during his time as Prime Minister.

Valentina Mirabella
Archival Specialist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B., late envoy to Persia, and governor of Bombay; from unpublished letters and journals. British Library: T 36845 vol. 2, in Qatar Digital Library

More on John Malcolm  - Diamonds at the Court of the Shah 

A free display “Waterloo: War and Diplomacy” runs until 6 September 2015 in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery.

 As soldiers of the Welsh Regiment were waiting on the platform at Cardiff Station in September 1904, an old man appeared.  He wore a tin placard round his neck:
‘This is to certify that John Vaughan was born in March 13th, 1801, and is 103 years of age.  He is licensed to sell bootlaces and other articles’.

Vaughan claimed that he had been a bugler in British Army, serving in the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimea, and the Indian Mutiny.  At the age of just fourteen, he had the honour of conveying to Wellington the welcome news that Blucher and his forces were approaching, and had then led General Blucher onto the field at Waterloo.

 

William Hamilton Maxwell, Stories of Waterloo (London, 1880)  BL flickr

Stories about Vaughan appeared in many local newspapers as he tramped round the country peddling his wares, popping up in places as far apart as Yorkshire, Wales, Durham, Somerset, and Merseyside.  He said that he needed to work as a hawker as his military pension of 1s per day had lapsed and he preferred the freedom of the open air to the confines of a workhouse.  People often gathered to hear Vaughan’s tales and he gladly accepted offerings of small change whilst not actually begging.

John Vaughan said he was the son of a Colonel in the Warwickshire Regiment. He had joined the 17th Lancers as a bugler, transferring after the Battle of Waterloo to the 24th Fusiliers. The ulcers on his legs were the result of wounds received at Waterloo. Reporters who met him variously described him as ‘intelligent and communicative’, ‘very slow and deliberate in his speech’, and as ‘a venerable warrior’ with ‘a wonderful memory of the graphic scenes at Waterloo’.

However, discrepancies in Vaughan’s story began to appear. At first these were put down to his memory being unreliable because of his advanced years. Then a journalist with the London Evening Standard contacted the War Office about the authenticity of Vaughan’s claims.  The King heard about Vaughan and ordered an inquiry into his case.

In 1874 a commission had been appointed to find all the Waterloo survivors with the aim of increasing their pensions. The youngest traced was a drummer aged ten in 1815. Vaughan had not appeared in the list.  Most importantly, the 17th Lancers had not fought at Waterloo.  A doctor also confirmed that Vaughan’s ulcers were not caused by gunshot wounds. Vaughan was not nearly as old as he claimed.

By this time, Vaughan had been admitted to the ward for ancients at the Birkenhead workhouse.  He did not take kindly to being revealed as a fraud: ‘Pressed further for definite replies to questions, Vaughan became unruly, and attempted to leave his bed and fight’. Perhaps he had come to believe his own yarn? The Lancashire Evening Post concluded: ‘He may be able to blow his own bugle; in fact he seems to have done so to some purpose - but he never did it at Waterloo’.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive – for example: Gloucester Citizen 23 September 1904; Aberdeen Journal 6 July 1905; Dundee Courier 17 & 19 August 1905; Lancashire Evening Post 18 August 1905; Northampton Mercury 18 August 1905; Edinburgh Evening News 19 August 1905; Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser 23 & 30 August 1905.

A free display “Waterloo: War and Diplomacy” runs until 6 September 2015 in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery.

It is 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo was fought in fields south of Brussels, on 18 June 1815. The battle saw the expansionist ambitions of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte shattered, with his defeat by the Duke of Wellington’s Anglo-Allied army, and the Prussian army under Marshal Blücher.  The British Library is marking the anniversary with a display of 16 unique historical documents, artworks, literary manuscripts and rare printed texts. Here is a taste of what is on display.

Napoleon had conquered much of Europe before being beaten and exiled to the island of Elba in 1814. On 26 February 1815 he escaped and returned to Paris, intent on regaining his empire. This satirical etching, probably by George Cruikshank, depicts Napoleon as a fox running towards Paris. Geese carry the news to the Congress of Vienna, which had been developing a peace plan for post-Napoleonic Europe.

 
  The fox and the goose; or, Boney broke loose! (1815). Maps 185.r.2.(2.)  Images Online

The Congress immediately branded Napoleon an outlaw. The original draft of their ‘Declaration of Outlawry’ is on display alongside the etching.

The centrepiece of the display is the Duke of Wellington’s own account of the Battle of Waterloo, which he probably partly drafted on the battlefield and completed in Brussels.  In his ‘Waterloo Despatch’, Wellington wrote that ‘the attack succeeded in every point; the enemy was forced from his positions on the heights and fled in the utmost confusion, leaving behind him as far as I could judge 150 pieces of cannon with their ammunition which fell into our hands’.

Also featured is this early plan of the battlefield drawn by John Wilson Croker, a close friend of the Duke of Wellington and therefore someone with access to accurate information. Wellington’s forces are shown in red, and the Prussians in black. The various stages of the French advance are depicted in blue. To the centre left is the farmhouse at Hougoumont, which was fiercely contested during the battle.

  Plan of the Waterloo battlefield by John Wilson Croker (1815). Add MS 40183, f. 285r

The army officer and military historian William Siborne was commissioned in 1830 to build a model of the Battle of Waterloo. He sent a circular to surviving officers requesting information on the layout of the battlefield. The replies he received provide unique eyewitness reports of the battle. In this one, Captain Charles Fairfield describes – and illustrates – a ‘sort of “defense” which was erected inside the wall at Hougoumont’.  

Sketch by Charles Fairfield of Hougoumont defences (1836). Add MS 34706, f. 130r

After the battle, Napoleon was captured by the British. This sketch by John Elliott shows the formation of ships while Napoleon was being transferred to the HMS Northumberland, before being transported to St Helena.  The list of wine provided to Napoleon on St Helena is also on display.

‘The form in which the ships lay, while removing Buounaparte from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland’ (1815?). 
Add MS 60335, f. 48v

With Napoleon’s defeat came a period of relative peace and stability in Europe, but one gained at an enormous price, as both sides suffered terrible losses. The final section of the display is devoted to literary and musical responses to the carnage of Waterloo, and includes original manuscripts of Lord Byron and Thomas Hardy.

Sandra Tuppen
Lead Curator, Modern Archives and Manuscripts, 1601-1850

The free display “Waterloo: War and Diplomacy” runs until 6 September 2015 in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery.

Shocking contemporaries and participants alike by the scale and carnage of the battle, Waterloo ended Napoleon’s imperial ambitions and helped to shape the political map of modern Europe. To commemorate the bicentenary of this momentous battle, leading academics and writers, in partnership with History Today, will discuss its legacy, from the forging of a British identity to the rise of a cult of Napoleon.
 

Evan.2510  Online Gallery 

Paul Lay (editor, History Today) will chair a discussion between

• Michael Broers, Professor of Western European History at the University of Oxford
• Robert Eaglestone, writer and Professor of Contemporary European Literature and Thought at Royal Holloway, University of London
• Alan Forrest, Emeritus Professor in Modern History at the University of York
• Jenny Uglow, biographer and historian.

This event will take place at the British Library on Monday 8 June 2015, 18:30 - 20:00.  See more details here.

Amid the many accounts of VE Day, I was interested to find the name of Henry Treece - perhaps now most familiar as the author of historical novels for children, certainly so to me, since three of his children’s books are on my shelves at home. In the Second World War he served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and in Leaves in the storm, a collection of diary entries and recollections of the war, which he edited with Stefan Schimanski, he included his own account of “The end of the war in Europe”.

In the final entry, dated 9 May, Treece describes his arrival at King’s Cross in North London on VE Day in 1945. In a day of mixed emotions he is moved by a fanfare for service personnel, stands proudly with others in uniform for the National Anthem and later joins the crowds in front of Buckingham Palace to see the King, Queen and Princesses on the balcony. His account evokes a sense of the overwhelming number of people on the streets, in restaurants and pubs, and the unfamiliar sight of lights blazing from shops and public buildings. Yet he also conveys his shifting moods and ambivalence towards the celebrations as he walks back from the station against a backdrop of fireworks, bonfires and singing – because “The war is only half-over, and many who are dancing and singing to-night will dance and sing no more”.

VE-Day celebrations, Trafalgar Square, London, England, May 8, 1945 - Lieut. Arthur L. Cole. Canada. Department of National Defence. Library and Archives Canada, PA-177086       Some rights reserved

For Treece himself, the end of the war meant an eventual return to teaching. In the 1940s he was primarily a poet, part of the New Apocalyptics or New Apocalypse, a slightly notional grouping of poets named from an anthology, The New apocalypse [1940], to which he contributed prose, criticism (relating to Surrealism) and several poems. In the 1950s, however, he turned to works of fiction, and one of his earliest books for children was Legions of the eagle (1954). His many tales of the Vikings, Romans and Celts, were illustrated by Charles Keeping, Christine Price and William Stobbs, among others. He died in 1966 and The Dream-time, his last, more experimental, book, was published posthumously in 1967 with a postscript by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Alison Bailey
Lead Curator, Printed Heritage Collections 1901-2000

Further reading:

Leaves in the storm: a book of diaries. Edited with a running commentary by Stefan Schimanski and Henry Treece. London: Lindsay Drummond, 1947. Shelfmark: 09101.b.10.

Dorian Cooke, J.F. Hendry,…Henry Treece, The New apocalypse: an anthology of criticism, poems and stories. London: Fortune Press, [1940]. Shelfmark: 12299.b.11.

Henry Treece, The Dream-time. With a postscript by Rosemary Sutcliff. Illustrated by Charles Keeping. Leicester: Brockhampton Press, 1967. Shelfmark: X.990/1217.

To find other works by Treece in our collections – search under his name in our online catalogue.

This week the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill is being commemorated.  There has been a flood of articles analysing his role in British history.  Untold Lives would like to highlight three little-known files in the India Office Records which show Mr Churchill’s generosity to men who had been his servants when he was a young officer in the British Army.

Churchill sailed for India with his regiment, the Queen’s Own Hussars, in October 1896.  He was stationed initially at Bangalore. In July 1943 the India Office set its administrative wheels in motion on behalf of Prime Minster Churchill who wished to send a personal gift of 100 rupees to his former servant Mr S Joshua. Mr Joshua was an inmate of the Friend-in-Need Society’s home in Bangalore.  Officials in London and India liaised to transfer the money through the Resident in Mysore to Mr Joshua after he had shown proof of his identity.  Churchill conveyed his thanks from Quebec where he was attending an Allied conference. He sent a cheque for £9 6s 9d made out to ‘Accountant-General India Office’ to cover to cost of the gift and a telegram to India.

 
World War II propaganda poster featuring Winston Churchill ©De Agostini/The British Library Board Images Online

Mr P Muniswamy wrote a letter to Churchill from Bangalore in December 1946 and again in May 1947 after he heard about the 100 rupees sent to Mr Joshua.  He claimed to be an ‘old old Servant’ who had worked for Churchill when he was stationed in India.  Churchill thought that he did remember a servant of that name some 50 years earlier and asked the Private Secretary to the Maharaja of Mysore to help investigate Mr Muniswamy’s character and circumstances so that he could judge whether or not to send him a gift of money.  Information was gathered locally and sent to England. Mr Muniswamy was about 68 years of age and bore a good character. He was earning 40 rupees a month as a bearer in the officers’ mess of Queen Victoria's Own Madras Sappers and Miners but likely to be discharged in August 1947 when the British officers left Bangalore. His five children were grown-up and his wife was his only dependant.  The three sons were prepared to help their parents financially but Mr Muniswamy ‘wanted a gift from his old master for personal requirements’. Churchill sent a cheque for £5.

 
IOR/L/PJ/7/14249 

In December 1948 Churchill received a letter from M A Ranookapathy whose father K M Anthimoolum had been Churchill’s dressing boy and butler. Churchill asked the Commonwealth Relations Office to ensure that a letter in reply reached Mr Ranookapathy safely and forwarded a cheque for £5.  Arrangements were made for the money to be paid into Mr Ranookapathy’s savings account in Bombay.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this story is the personal attention given by Winston Churchill to his former servants in India.   He took time to ensure the gifts reached the intended recipients even when he was carrying the burden of being Prime Minister of a nation at war.

Margaret Makepeace
India Office Records

Further reading:
IOR/R/2/Box26/214 Mysore Residency files
IOR/L/PJ/7/5735
IOR/L/PJ/7/14249