Editorial – Waterloo Visit 2006

Eight members joined a small band of some 18 people on the three day tour organised and led by Graeme Cooper, who you will remember gave a fascinating talk to the group earlier in the year. We visited the battlefield sites at Ligny where the French fought the Prussians and also Quatre Bras where the French fought the Allied Army under Wellington. Both battles took place on the day before the decisive battle of Waterloo on the 18h June 1815.

To say that Graeme is an expert on this period of our history is probably to do him a disservice. He makes the subject come alive and to walk the battle field at Waterloo and to piece together how the battle developed from the English, French and Prussian viewpoints made for a fascinating and worthwhile visit.

Having read several books on Waterloo beforehand you get no real sense of what happened on the 17h and 18" June. To visit Hougoumont Farm, where 500 English soldiers died defending it from massed French attacks. To see the 'killing field' where the French Infantry were mown down and where the land is contaminated by lead from the musket balls fired during the battle; you begin to understand.

It is hoped to arrange another trip in 2007, this time to the First World War Battlefields.