Events

Battlefields Trust Online Lecture: Who won at Waterloo?

Tuesday 16th July 2024

We are all familiar with the old francophone assertion that Napoleon was the real victor at Waterloo. Equally, at a simplistic level, most Anglophones know that Wellington won at Waterloo, perhaps with a bit of assistance from Blücher.

In this talk, Ewan will attempt to strike the right sort of balance, drawing on a selection of sources, to examine the effect of the arrival of the Prussians on Napoleon's right flank (Ridley Scott, take note!). In particular, he will attempt to convey a sense of force ratios mapped against time, which demonstrates the progressive committal of French reserves in an unintended direction.

Ewan’s particular interests are Leadership, the Realities of War and Close Combat, through the ages, but particularly the ‘horse and musket’ era.

He is a direct successor to Wellington’s McGrigor as Director General Army Medical Services. He set up and led the British Army’s Air Assault Medical Regiment and then commanded all of the Army’s Field Hospitals operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was awarded an MBE for Squadron leadership in the First Gulf War and CBE for my direction of the Army Medical Services (AMS), at a time when the AMS achieved its highest battle casualty survival rate in history.

He is a graduate of the Army Staff College and member of the Royal College of Defence Studies, my MA was on whether it is possible to create a strategy which endures. Ewan is also a Fellow of one of the Medical Royal Colleges, and also an Apothecary and Freeman of the City of London.

Gregarious rather than combative by nature, Ewan was surprised to be elected as President of the Combined Services Martial Arts Society by its members, and even more pleasantly surprised to win the first Worldwide Open tournament for renaissance sword & buckler at Hanover in 2010.

 
 

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The Battlefields Resource Centre