32 WATERLOO AFTER THE GLORY. HOSPITAL SKETCHES AND REPORTS ON THE WOUNDED AFTER THE BATTLE.pdf

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The Battle of Waterloo was one of the most horrific actions fought during the Napoleonic

Wars. There have been several studies of battlefield injuries and the field care that casualties

received during the campaign of June 1815. However, what happened to the many thou-

sands of injured men left behind as the armies marched away is rarely discussed.

In June 1815, around 62,000 Allied and French wounded flooded into Brussels, Antwerp,

and other towns and cities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and swamped the medical

services. These casualties were eventually cared for by a wide mix of medical personnel

including hundreds of ‘Belgian’ surgeons, most of whom had trained in the French Service

de Santé and who assisted in the dispersal, treatment, and rehabilitation of thousands of

casualties after the battle.

New data concerning the fate of the thousands of Allied and some French casualties

has emerged from the library of the University of Edinburgh. This has revealed a collec-

tion of over 170 wound sketches, detailed case reports, and the surgical results from five

Brussels Hospitals. The sketches were carried out by Professor John Thomson, who held

the first Regius Chair in Military Surgery appointed by the University of Edinburgh. Most

accounts are of Allied wounded, but certainly not all. The accounts, drawings and surgical

results dramatically alter our understanding of the management of military wounded in the

Georgian army.

Michael Crumplin is a retired consultant and general surgeon living in North Wales. Before

and after retirement, he took an interest in the human aspects of conflict. He has written

four books which focus on medicine and surgery, in both the Army and Royal Navy during

the French wars of 1792-1815. He has also written book chapters, many articles, and has,

since 2000, delivered around 400 lectures. He was education lead for Waterloo 200 and since

2015, with the generous support of a local businessman, has donated his medical collec-

tion and set up a unique museum of surgery in the farm used as the principal field hospital

during the Battle of Waterloo at Mont St Jean.

Gareth Glover is a 58-year-old ex-Royal Navy officer, who has studied the Napoleonic

Wars for forty years. He has spent the last 15 years discovering and publishing numerous

accounts of soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, to date he has published over 70

books and monographs.

Waterloo: After the Glory

Hospital Sketches and Reports on the Wounded

following the Battle

Michael Crumplin and Gareth Glover

Foreword by the Duke of Wellington

Helion & Company