"Amazing eye-witness account of Duke of Wellington missing" Topic

… 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…."

Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

But the nickname 'Iron Duke' only came into use much later, referring to the Duke fitting shutters to the windows of Apsley House to protect them from rioters!

If the provenance of this definite…if…then it is an important addition to the literature on Waterloo.

Odd that it has only recently surfaced but, even if it just a copy of the original, its content is unaffected.

I wonder was Col Best approached by Siborne as he collected his accounts. I certainly cannot recall this tale of Wellington's close shave, but it strikes me that he had a closer escape when Uxbridge was next to him (and who knows how may more times eg de Lancey's wound)

Funny thing. Col Carl Best (The "British Military Commander" sic) gives a very detailed account of 16th-18th June in "Waterloo; Hanoverian Correspondence" pp 150-70. Not a mention of any of this….

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand