"Rare flag from Battle of Waterloo found" Topic

From 2017- did I miss this on TMP?

Rare flag from Battle of Waterloo found in a shoe box
link

A military antiques collector has discovered one of the last remaining flags from the Battle of Waterloo in a shoe box.

Gary Lawrence bought the collection of items through an online auction and found fragments of the flag which dates back 200 years.

He is now restoring the flag, which belonged to the Coldstream Guards 15th Light Company

Did a light company in 1815 took its flag with it on campaign?

Well, I doubt they would have taken a colour into battle at Waterloo, displaying the honorary distinction "Waterloo"….

Of course the "Waterloo" distinction could well be added to an existing flag, but I find it hard to imagine this being waved around at Hougoumont as suggested. Of course it is going up for auction, so anything that enhances its provenance….

I didn't think individual companies -- let alone a light company -- had their iwn flag.

Each Guards company did have their own colour but they were not all carried in battle at the same time. In the Guards, the King's colour was the plain red colour while the Union flag was the company colour. These company colours were deployed in turn to act as the regimental colour so each battalion would have the standard two flags when on a battlefield. Which one was carried by the 2nd Bn of the Coldstreams at Waterloo (the only bn at the battle)
I do not know at the moment. However, the Charlemagne's crown motive on the flag in question would make it the 15th company's colour and the battle honours could have been added before the end of 1815. Again, the bugle motive suggests a light company but I cannot comment definitively.

The finding of the flag seems a bit strange. At the end of their service lives, colours are usually laid up with great ceremony and spent the rest of their days usually hanging up in a cathedral or regimental chapel. How the Coldstreams' 2nd Bn lost their colour must be quite story.

Goes against the tradition of not restoring British military flags. Colours that are retired (or more properly laid up) are supposed to be left to decay.

(Which also explains why there aren't many old British army flags in existence)

So the provenance grows increasingly dodgy.

I would hate to think that this affects the Auction bids. How unhappy I would be. I am sure this could be a marvellous relic, but would want to see much more research into its origins, before forking out hundreds of thousands of any currency.

I assume Dibble's brilliant reconstruction is based on what is shown here, rather than primary evidence of how the standard looked (wherever it was in 1815).

I knocked this up some time ago.

Deadhead

The original colour that was found in the box is the colour shown below my reconstruction.

"Well, I doubt they would have taken a colour into battle at Waterloo, displaying the honorary distinction "Waterloo"…."

Maybe the regimental commander was a psychic and knew ahead of time where they would be fighting…?

Regiments were far less respectful towards their discarded colours in the early 19th century. The Osprey on British Infantry Colours gives examples of their being cut up and distributed among officers or given away as wedding presents. Laying up in churches became more common as the century progressed.