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British veterans in first archaeological dig at Waterloo field hospital

The Battle of Waterloo changed the face of European history. The Duke of Wellington's victory brought the end of the Napoleonic wars.  - © Lifestyle pictures / Alamy Stock Photo
The Battle of Waterloo changed the face of European history. The Duke of Wellington's victory brought the end of the Napoleonic wars. - © Lifestyle pictures / Alamy Stock Photo

British veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder will carry out the first ever archaeological dig at Wellington’s field hospital in the Battle of Waterloo.

The 25 servicemen from the UK and Dutch army, navy and air force, will join a team of archaeologists excavating the Mont St-Jean farm buildings on the battlefield in Belgium. British soldiers fought alongside their Dutch allies at the battle.

Thousands of wounded soldiers under the Duke of Wellington’s command were treated in the field hospital while coming under fire from French soldiers and artillery led by Napoleon in June 1815.

The July dig is organised by Waterloo Uncovered, a charity founded by Major Charles Foinette and Captain Mark Evans, who are both officers in the Coldstream Guards. Capt Evans suffered from PTSD  after serving in Afghanistan.

“Once the cannons opened fire, the farm buildings rapidly overflowed with the wounded,” Professor Tony Pollard of Glasgow University, who is leading the dig, said.

“Mont-St-Jean became a place of suffering and endurance. It’s possible that as many as 6,000 casualties passed through the place.”

He added, “The site has never been excavated before. As an archaeologist this is a unique opportunity to look for evidence of the battle to save lives.”

The field hospital, 600 metres from the frontline,rlo would have been a nightmarish place. Surgeons battled to save lives using primitive tools and would amputate limbs without anaesthetic.

Capt Evans, who retired in 2010,  said, “It will be thought-provoking and moving to be excavating on the site of the field hospital. Some of our team have themselves experienced battlefield first aid.

“The men of 1815 would have hoped for very little,” he added, ”Many of those who survived returned to an uncertain future because of their injuries.”

Those who succumbed to the roar of muskets or the devastation of the cannonballs had an even less glorious future. The dead were burned, buried in unmarked graves or their bones simply ground for fertiliser for local farmers.

Capt Evans said that the Waterloo Uncovered project offered a nine month programme of support to the veterans, who include a 19-year-old, a Coldstream Guards soldier recuperating from training injuries, to a man in his mid-70s.

“The dig is just the beginning,” said Captain Evans.

Mike Greenwood, part of the Waterloo Uncovered team, said, "Archaeology, among a group of fellow servicemen and women, can be beneficial to veterans for a number of reasons. It provides a supportive environment of like minded people, especially when dealing in military history, and it allows them to see a broader context to their own service.

“There is also something about the practical process of archaeology which is meditative, even therapeutic."

The Battle of Waterloo changed the face of Europe” said Colonel Ludy de Vos of the Dutch Veterans’ Institute.

“We’re delighted for Dutch military personnel to be standing alongside British and international colleagues at a site so important to European history”.

Waterloo, which Wellington described as the "nearest run thing you saw in your life",  marked the end of the Napoleonic wars. Wellington offered Napoleon battle close to Brussels, in the knowledge that Prussian reinforcements would eventually turn the tide of conflict.

The site of the battle quickly became a tourist attraction. The battlefield today boasts a museum and is dominated by the Lion’s Mound, a 141 ft hill made from the soil of the battle built in 1826 to mark the spot where William II of the Netherlands was knocked from his horse by a musket ball.