Dear Member
As you know we have been running another series of online Winter Lectures. For those of you how were unable to watch them live we try to make as many of them as possible to view later in our Member’s Area. Please understand that this is not possible for all the talks we run.
Three new talks have been added.
‘Gurwood revived’ – by Freida Stack
John Gurwood was famous in his lifetime and much admired throughout the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century interest in him declined. Wellington studies often give him only a passing mention. Reference books contain incorrect facts about him. The lecture will offer a major reassessment of Gurwood’s life and will throw new light on his collaboration with the Duke to collect, edit, and publish the Dispatches.
Freida Stack has published a life of John Gurwood, the editor of the Duke of Wellington’s Dispatches, based on four years’ research in the Wellington Papers in Special Collections at Southampton University Library.
‘Wellington’s Waterloo Allies’ – by Andrew Field
At Waterloo only a little over a third of Wellington’s army was British. The rest consisted of contingents from the United Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau. The British were quick to claim the glory for themselves and the allied contingents were insulted as cowards. More recent re-assessment now often credits them with having won the battle for Wellington. In this presentation Andrew Field will attempt to present a more balanced assessment.
Andrew Field is a retired army officer and a frequent visitor, guide, and speaker on the battle of Waterloo. He has eight books to his name, seven of them on the battle. His latest book reassesses the contribution of Wellington’s allied contingents to the great victory.
‘Who owned Waterloo? Battle, Memory, and Myth in British History 1815-1852’ – by Dr. Luke Reynolds
Examining a wide variety of sources and events from memoirs, monuments, rituals, and relics to hippodramas, panoramas, and even shades of blue, Who Owned Waterloo? explores how Britain fully incorporated the victory of Waterloo into its national identity, in the process prompting various interest groups throughout the country to claim different aspects of the battle and its remembrance, even as they all worked together to redefine it as a British, rather than allied, victory.
Dr Luke Reynolds, Ph.D., FRHistS is a cultural historian who writes on military commemoration and national memory. His first book, Who Owned Waterloo? Battle, Memory, & Myth in British History, 1815-1852 was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut.
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