A TADS talk by Richard Bennett and Prof John Missenden

Monday 12 June 2023; 8.00 pm at Heath End Village Hall, Heath End Road, Baughurst, RG26 5LU

The talk will capture the Duke of Wellington’s life from his birth in 1769 to his state funeral in 1852. Inevitably the story includes conflict in India, the Peninsula War and of course at Waterloo. After what the Duke hoped “would be my last battle” we will follow his political life, his varied appointments and his role as an elder statesman. His fondness for the company of beautiful women is not forgotten, some of his pithier comments include “what has it come to when a gentleman cannot give a lady a tiara without causing comment” and “published and be damned”.  We will be in the crowds of some 1 ½ million people who followed his funeral procession from Horse Guards to St Paul’s Cathedral and then join the congregation of 12,500 who had to wait for hours in the cold for his coffin to be manoeuvred from his funeral carriage into the Cathedral. Finally, we will hear Queen Victoria’s reflections on the Great Duke in her diary.