NAM.2014-05-8-1

Miniature commemorative sword, belonging to Lord Raglan. Wooden blade, with gold hilt, scabbard and suspension loop; engraved on both sides of hilt ‘June 18th 1815’ and on the scabbard ‘Waterloo’. From the collection of Lord Raglan. Associated with Battle of Waterloo, Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo (1815) 1815. This miniature sword is thought to have been an adornment for a fashionable lady, hung from a long chain or sautoir, or from a woman’s waist. It is very possible that it was presented to Wellington’s niece, Lady Emily Wellesley-Pole (1792-1881). In 1814 Emily married Wellington’s close companion and aide-de-camp Fitzroy Somerset, later Lord Raglan (1788-1855). Emily was at Brussels at the time of the battle, having given birth to her daughter Charlotte there on 16th May. Fitzroy Somerset received a musket wound at Waterloo that required the amputation of the right arm above the elbow. As a relic of the battlefield, this miniature sword would have had considerable significance to the Raglan family. The blade is said to have been cut from the elm tree next to the site near the crossroads of the Brussels and Ohain roads from which Wellington directed the battle of Waterloo. Contemporary accounts state that the tree was cut into pieces after the battle to provide keepsakes. It stood in a cornfield, whose owner had decided by September 1818 to fell the tree. John George Children, a librarian in the Department of Antiquities at the British Museum and later assistant keeper in its Natural History Department, happened to be visiting the battlefield on 27th September and bought its wood from the farmer. Children had Thomas Chippendale the Younger produce a chair using the timber, which he had delivered to the Prince Regent in 1821 - this is still in the Royal Collection. He presented another chair to the Duke of Wellington and presented wood from the tree to the Duke of Rutland, who also turned it into a chair - both chairs are still in the family collections of their descendants. The chairs are referred to in an article published in 1836 in ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’. A fourth chair (possibly Children’s own) sold for £9000 in 2012. Children also had a mineral cabinet, a work-table, a small stand for a bust of Wellington, a small table cabinet and a writing table made from the wood.

Waterloo, Battle of, 1815 (Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo 1815)