At the Battle of Waterloo Sir William Ponsonby, a man who the Duke of Wellington stated had ‘rendered very brilliant and important services and was an ornament to his profession’, was killed by French lancers after leading the Union Brigade (the three Dragoon Regiments of the Royals, Iniskillings and Scots Greys) in a charge that wrecked a French advance that threatened Wellington with defeat. Sir William was a career soldier who had led his regiment in the decisive charge at the Battle of Salamanca and served with great distinction during the Peninsular War. Yet historians have blamed him because the charge at Waterloo got out of hand. In this book John Morewood uses family sources, including Sir William’s letters, as well as French and German accounts, to restore his reputation and, by shedding new light on the battle, establishes what really happen to him on that fatal afternoon. It is also a biography of a man whose bravery and professionalism distinguished him as one of the outstanding cavalry commanders of the age.
The square of the 85th de la ligne opened fire on the Scots Greys causing many casualties and the troopers turned Sir William Ponsonby has gone down in immortality as leading the decisive charge of the Union Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo, on June 18th, 1815. In the 1970’s film ‘Waterloo’ he was played by Michael Wilding and anyone who has seen this film will remember how he and a Scots Greys trooper are pursued across a muddy landscape by seven lancers. In the film, Ponsonby gave a locket to a trooper and said ‘here give these to my son. Now save yourself’. Drawing his sabre, he is slain by the lancers, repeating his father’s death as he had told Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, (played by Terence Alexander) before the start of the charge.
As we all know a good story sometimes becomes the established truth when in fact it is fiction!