"Colonel Charles Best eye-witness account of Duke... " Topic

…of Wellington missing death from cannonball by inches on the eve of Waterloo up for auction 200 years later

"This is an amazing eye-witness account of how the Duke of Wellington came within inches of death on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo.
Now 200 years later, the two page missive from the frontline is set to go under the hammer in London.
It explains how the British military commander lived up to his nickname of the Iron Duke and did not even flinch when the deadly missile landed in the ground close by him.
Instead of cowering, he simply shook off the dirt that had covered him and finished writing out an order on bended knee.
When the battle was won the peckish commander sat on the ground and took out a piece of bread from his pocket which he 'seemed to eat with great appetite.'…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

He came across the blood-soaked body of Major General Sir William Ponsonby, one of the most senior officers killed at Waterloo after he was overtaken and speared by French lancers.

I saw this from the article and thought how could they have gotten that wrong? Ponsonby survived. But then I found this article via Wiki.

link

He had a cousin Fredrick who was chopped a couple of times and then stabbed with a lance. He was the Ponsonby that survived. I believe the Waterloo movie staring Rod Steiger did get it wrong…as did a couple of accounts from other book sources.

So thanks for posting! Interesting first hand account. Also cleared up something I never knew I had wrong.

BTW, Charles Best was in command of the Hanoverian Militia brigade (4 battalions) attached to Picton's 5th division.

To be clear, as you say…two Ponsonbys and related. Michael Rennie version, Sir William, led the Scots Greys (well, no he didn't he commanded the whole Union Brigade) and was killed by Line Lancers in controversial circumstances (may not have been cold blooded murder of a prisoner)

The other lad, Fred, was an officer of light dragoons who left a marvellous account of his survival in the mud of the French lines despite lance and sabre wounds.

Amused also to read the blurb with the letter;

"where they were met by a relieved King of France who had been living in exile in Prussia during the Napoloenic (sic, their spelling not mine) wars".

I can just imagine poor Louis XVIII any where near Prussia! He enjoyed a decade or more sojourn in England and then Ghent for the Hundred Days

It was Michael Wilding who played William Ponsonby in the Waterloo film.

It was! it's my age!!