Napoleonic Newsdesk

Stolen Waterloo Medal Recovered


Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly Tidy commanded 3rd Banahon 14th Foot on the right of the British line at Waterloo. 14 years ago his Waterloo Medal was stolen from an English museum, but recently resurfaced in Sydney, Australia at a car boot sale. The purchaser, Mike Downey, recognized the value of the medal and has graciously agreed to return it to the modem descendants of the regiment The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire.

The 3rd was the only battalion of the 14th Foot to see action at Waterloo, with a strength of 38 officers and 544 other ranks. It only did so due to the efforts of Lt. Col. Tidy. His battalion was deemed not fit for active service by the Inspector Genen3.1 as he " never saw such a lot of boys". Tidy, faced with the ignominy of garrison duty at Antwerp, was spurned to make a direct appeal to Wellington to make a personal inspection of the battalion and to overturn the order. Wellington, apparently more easily impressed than his Inspector General and stationed the 14th on the right of the line.

This position to rear of Hougoumont and on the reverse slope behind Wellington's man line was held together with tow companies of the Coldstreams with their colours and two battalions of Hugh Halken's Hanoverian Brigade.

After the battle the Divisional commander, Lieutenant General Sir Charles Colville, congratulated the youthful battalion. Paul Chamberlain on its first action, stating that they had "displayed a steadiness and gallantry becoming of veteran troops".

The 3rd Battalion 14th Foot had 1 officer and 7 men killed. 1 officer, 4 sergeants and 16 men wounded. Only raised in 1813, the battalion was disbanded, never to be reformed, in 1816.

--Dave Watkins

Other Napoleonic Newsdesk Items:

Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #30
© Copyright 1996 by First Empire.

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com