WELLINGTON’S ARMY

At our October meeting Geoff Lee gave an illustrated talk on the Duke of Wellington & his rise to fame.
He was, with his contemporary Nelson, known as the hero of the day.
Born as Arthur Wellesley the 4th son, on the first of May 1769 in Dublin he was schooled at Eton & then went to the French Military academy. As an ensign with great ability, he worked hard & bought his way up through the ranks. He became MP for Ireland.
He was made Lt. Colonel of the 33rd Foot regiment & fought in the Netherlands & India
He was a Field Marshall & in 1809 commanded the Peninsula war. He was created Count Wellington.
In 1813 he was Field Marshall to the Horse Guards & was knighted the Duke of Wellington in 1814.
He was made custodian of Walmer Castle & Warden of the Cinque Ports.
We heard of the many Battles he commanded many of which only lasting one day as did the Battle of Waterloo & through slides & photos saw many of the Army’s battle plans & the scenes of war which we were interested to hear were not drawn on the battlefield but by what was described to the artist later.
We saw how regiments were identified by the uniforms they wore & the colour of such items as the facings, collar & cuff. We heard gruesome details of hand to hand fighting, square & line defence systems & the long treks on foot by the army to reach their destination of the next battle.
We were then given helpful & interesting details on how such things as Muster rolls, Medal rolls & other documents & museums that could help us in our family history research. If you have an unexplainable gap in your family history especially long gaps between the birth of children it could be your man was in Wellington’s Army!
Our next meeting is on December 2nd a change from the original date in November.
It is our Social evening with Displays of Photos on Childhood Holidays, a quiz & a talk by Pete Edwards on Crimes & Misdemeanours & a wine buffet
[Barbara Holmes]