It is only right and fitting that a considerable part of this month's Newsletter should be given up to describing the events that have taken place, both in England and in America, to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Readers will recall that the Newsletter beat the gun by putting on their own reconstruction of Waterloo some three months ago in London. But the events which took place on and around the actual day -- the 18th June -- are well worthy of being recorded.
The British Model Soldier Society (which every wargamer is urged to join) went to an enormous amount of trouble to organize a Waterloo Convention held at the Rembrandt Hotel in London on the l8th and 19th June.
This was excellently attended and everybody had good value for money -- right from the start they were presented with a 54mm figure made by Stadden of the Duke of Wellington, together with a folder containing a considerable amount of literature pertaining to Waterloo and to model soldiers. There was a most interesting display of exhibits connected with the battle -- weapons, uniforms and similar momentos and a number of beautiful dioramas. In addition, there were a number of stands on which items could be purchased. Among those exhibiting known to Newsletter readers were Hinton Hunt figures, Deltorama Scenic Accessories, Scruby figures, Russell Gammage and his Rose Models. Ted Suren and his "Willy" range, Norman Newton etc. etc. In passing, I would mention that a sight of Suren's female figures, half-dressed in military uniform during some imaginery Peninsular War orgy was well worth the price of admission alone!
After a most humorous opening by the Marquess of Anglesey, whose ancestor, Lord Uxbridge, lost a leg in well-known circumstances at Waterloo, we had a lecture on the battle itself by Brigadier P. T. Young and David Chandler. Unfortunately, a prior engagement caused me to miss this but I was told it was extremely good. Then followed lectures on uniforms and weapons connected with the battle Culminating in a most unique and spine-chilling discourse by Dr. John Hanington, dealing with the surgery and medical arrangements at the battle. Dr. Hanington has a professional interest in this facet Of model soldier collecting and showed most interesting models of the various buildings of Waterloo that were used as hospitals together with gory dioramas showing surgery taking place. Aided by foamplastic models of parts of the anatomy, suitably pierced by bayonets lances, musket bells etc, he came to a grand finale when he performed an amputation on a foamplastic thigh with a broom stick bone running through the middle and tubes representing nerves and blood vessels all of which were professionally disected by surgical instruments of the period.
From our particular point of view, the wargame that took place outside in the hall between Peter Gilder and Bill Pearce was a highlight. This was the final game after a rather protracted and difficult series of preliminary rounds in which many byes had been given because of travelling difficulties. It was a Napoleonic game fought with 20mm figures, mainly Hinton Hunt and Alberken on a terrain about 16' x 6', involving some 1500 figures altogether. In this limited space it is not possible to give a blow-by-blow account of the game but briefly the terrain consisted of a very long ridge, stretching across the centre of the board, two villages on either flank with close country on the French left flank and another ridge on the British right flank. Gilder, taking the British held on the ridge for his right flank stormed forward at the beginning of the battle and captured the centre ridge and meleed for the village on the French right flank. Gilder's selection of troops gave him a superiority of light infantry and artillery -- these he made good use of and was able to force his way through the light French centre whilst holding their two strong wings. It is right and fitting that Peter Gilder should have won this first tournament held by the B.M.S.S. because no-one puts in greater time and trouble over models, terrain and travelling about the country than does Peter Gilder.
An excellent dinner ended the proceedings and I for one arrived back home pleased, tired, penniless and with a hang-over.
Other Events
There is much else that has happened in connection with Waterloo that is worthy of mention, For example, Ted Haskell on June 18th 1965 held a WATERLOO ROUNDTABLE at his home in Lansing, Michigan, U. S. A. The afternoon and evening was to be spent in discussion of the troops, weapons, uniforms and tactics of the Napoleonic Era in general and of Waterloo in particular. He assembled a model of the field of Waterloo at a scale of 900 yards to the foot on a 6' x 12' table-top, the armies were represented by brigade unit blocks and when deployed into action by 20mm figures on a ratio of 200 to 1. The action was worked out for purposes of study, critique, photo series etc. It hoped that Ted will send us a fuller follow-up of this event to be published in the near future.
Numerous publications have come out over the last few weeks also dealing with Waterloo, I am mentioning the major items here but there are no doubt others which I have not seen.
Merberlen Limited have had printed an excellent booklet entitled 'Vues De Waterloo'. Size 10 3/4" x 8 1/2". It contains contemporary engravings showing prominent places and features on the battlefield and sells at 10s. 6d. ($1.50) plus 1s. Od. postage. Using modern photo-printing techniques, it has become possible to reproduce the illustrations exactly without losing any of the charm or effectiveness of the original engravings which were made soon after the battle end were first published in book form similar to the present edition. It is hoped that this new book will be useful both to students of military history and to model soldier collectors or wargovers who may wish to reconstruct all or part, of the Waterloo battlefield in miniature.
TRADITION NO. 9 that glossiest of glossy magazines has really gone to town on this event with a greatly enlarged magazine and also with free coloured prints of four groups of figures of the period, worth the price of the magazine. All Napoleonic fans MUST have this copy of Tradition, containing as it does:
- The London Gazett, Thursday June 22nd, 1815
The Emper's Bulletin, Paris, June 21st, 1815
The Account of Marshal Ney
The Account of Blucher
The Despatch of William, Prince of Orange
The Account of General Alton
The Spanish Account of Lt. General Don Miguel de Alava
Wellington's Dress at Waterloo
The 35th Foot Colour Plate by Chas. Stadden
Sesquicentennial
British Infantry, Waterloo 1815
The Ensign's Coot
British Cavalry, Waterloo, 1815
The British Casualty Lists (London Gazette)
Sangfroid Epatant d'un Milor Anglais
Appendices from Siborne's Watlerloo
A Short Bibliography of the Waterloo Campaign
Reminiscence
Waterloo 1965, Photographs by A. G. Clayton
The Allied Medals for Waterloo
LIFE INTERNATIONAL - JUNE 14th 1965- contains a supplement dealing with the Battle of Waterloo with 20 full pages of coloured pictures, two of which are uniform plates. This is an absolutely fabulous momento and has reproductions of photos from the military collection of Anne Brown ("Anatomy of Glory"), plates by Knotel, Sharlet, Adolf Northen, Bellange and others.
The Times Coloured Supplement in Sunday 20th June also has a very fine article of Waterloo with many pages of coloured picturesmany of them of model soldiers used to illustrate the text. Advisor to this article was Dr. John Hanington.
Well,, that seems to be all to say about the Waterloo Celebrations. I don't know what went on in America other than what has already been mentioned. I know that the French Government turned a very disapproving eye on British and Belgian celebrations so I imagine that little went on in France. The implication here, of course. is that vie can expect current things from the French next year on the 900th Anniversary of The Battle of Hastings -- we can also say that great things are planned over here. More later.
Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 40
To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1965 by Donald Featherstone.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com