History - Peace from War
Peace from War
Photo by © Chris van Houts
V
eterans recovering from the mental and physical impacts of their military service are following in the footsteps of comrades who died some 200 years ago.
A new report by the charity Waterloo Uncovered has revealed how archaeological work on the battlefield of Waterloo is helping veterans and serving military personnel come to terms with their own experiences. Published to mark the fifth
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anniversary of the charity, and coinciding with the 205th anniversary of the battle on June 18, 1815, the report highlighted the results of a nine-month pilot project. The Veterans and Military Personnel Support Programme was run in conjunction with the excavation on the Belgian battlefield, where Napoleon’s domination of Europe was finally ended. Some 50 British and Dutch veterans and serving personnel took part in the dig last
July, alongside a team of archaeologists led by Professor Tony Pollard, Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow. The excavations examined key areas of the battlefield, including Hougoumont Farm - the scene of a famous episode where soldiers of the Scots and Coldstream Guards regiments foiled a French attack by forcing closed the gates. The dig found evidence of the destruction wrought on the buildings, as well as personal
