William Henry Clerke 13 September 1793 16 February 1861 The Battle of Waterloo WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 1
Table of Contents: Introduction 3 Context of the Battle of Waterloo 3 The Battle of Waterloo 4 William Henry Clerke, Old Carthusian 6 Bibliography 7 WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 2
Introduction Through this project we wish to explore the life of William Henry Clerke who was a student at Charterhouse between 1803 and 1811. We also will look at the Battle of Waterloo, in which Clerke fought and also the events that led up to the battle. We have gathered information from a variety of sources and a list of these is at the bibliography at the back. Context of the Battle of Waterloo On the lead up to the Russian campaign Tsar Alexander I decided to not be part of the continental blockade on Britain as the effects of it were crippling Russia s economy. This enraged Napoleon as he had a firm hatred towards the British and on June 24 1812, he invaded Russia, despite his closest advisors best efforts to convince him otherwise. He summoned the biggest army in living memory from across his whole empire. Soldiers from Germany, France, Poland and in total over 600,000 men to his command. He was so confident in his strategic ability that he declared he would conquer Russia in 20 days, which is a very bold statement when the sheer size of Russia is considered, and the walking distance from the edge of what is now Slovakia to Moscow is 1622 km which would take around 540 hours of walking, considering the average walking speed is 3 mph. Napoleon wanted to destroy his enemy quickly but the Russians would not fight and instead deployed the scorched earth policy, which they would later employ when Hitler invades over a century later. As the extremely hot Russian summer began to take its toll on the French troops, 150,000 were put out of action from exhaustion, disease and desertion in the first two months. before even fighting a battle Napoleon had lost a quarter of his army. Then the Russians finally engaged but Napoleon did not show his normal subtle strategy and hurled all of his men at Moscow on September 8.The Russians withdrew the next day and Napoleon declared victory over Moscow. Although Napoleon was short of time and advanced North, hoping to get there before winter, but that did not happen and he was pushed back out of Russia and by the time he was out of Russia there was only 27,000 fit soldiers remaining. 100,000 had been captured and 380,000 men were dead. The campaign effectively ended on the 14th of WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 3
December, 1812. On the way back it is thought that Napoleon said to his soldiers, This damned cough but in French it translates closely to Slaughter them all so the French army killed many of their prisoners. After Napoleon had been pushed back it was evident that he could not keep up fighting in Europe as his army had been hugely depleted. In April 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island of Elba, in March the following year, he escaped from his Mediterranean island prison and returned to France, in an attempt to gain power in France. Europe s armies were getting ready to fight him, so he decided to take the attacking side. He hoped to immobilise the coalition that had been formed to go against him, he even had the intention of wiping out a few of his enemies. Two armies had been gathered in the Netherlands, and this is where Napoleon aimed his offensive. There was a Prussian army and an allied army of British, Dutch, Belgian and German troops under Field Marshal Gebhard von Blucher and Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington respectively. Both of these forces combined would outnumber the French, so Napoleon did his best to keep them away from each other to maximise his success. On the 15 June 1815 he did just that by attacking in between the two forces, keeping them separated. On the 16 he defeated the Prussian army at Ligny, counting his losses at 10,000 men, half the number of the Prussian losses. Two days after, the Duke of Wellington s men retreated to south of the village Waterloo. Napoleon had ordered 35,000 men to track and follow the Prussians, but due to lack of communications he was unaware that even though they were defeated they were still in good shape. They retreated towards Waterloo, this meant that they could contact Wellington. However, although Wellington had been promised by Field Marshal Blucher that he would send troops, he had no time to wait for the Prussians, so he decided to fight Napoleon on 18th June 1815, waiting for Blucher to arrive with his army. The Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo took place on the 18th June 1815 in a muddy field. This was a contest between two men and two military giants: France, led by Napoleon, who is considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time, and Britain, led by Wellington. Napoleon wanted to capture Brussels after he had escaped from an island that he had been banished to and returned to Paris to once again take command. His goal had always been to establish an empire in Europe but now Prussia joined with Austria, WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 4
Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition called the sixth coalition (the name is pretty self explanatory). Wellington knew that the outcome of the battle heavily rested on the arrival of general Blucher and his Prussian army who were 18 miles away from the British and he also knew that he was outnumbered buy about 4,000 men. Therefore, he adapted a strong defensive position, placing all men behind three reinforced farmhouses and a ridge. On his left was the farm of Papolette, in front of him was Le Haye Sainte and to his right was Hougoumont, which was to be one of the most important in this battle. He was all set to defend until the Prussians arrival with a perfect natural defence: he had both a good vantage point and cover for his troops because of the high corn in the fields, the natural incline and the three well positioned farmhouses. Napoleon was still extremely confident though and said that Wellington was a bad general but as he said before Soldiers generally win battles;generals get credit for them. The battle began on the 18th of June with a large scale battery of cannon fire from the French before Napoleon s own brother started an assault on the British's most well defended Farmhouse, Hougoumont. The French had 5000 troops to Britain s 1500 but the farmhouse was so well defended and the British could shoot through some holes in the wall at the defenceless Frenchmen. This did not falter Napoleon though and he threw countless attacks at the British finally forcing open the gates but the British closed the gates quickly, trapping 40 men inside who were slaughtered except for one boy, who was an 11 year old drummer. While he was attracting a lot of attention to Hougoumont and the British right flank Napoleon ordered an assault on the other two farms and quickly took Papelpotte on Wellington s right and he had also taken the area surrounding Le Haye Sainte so he now surrounded it. Now he just needed to take Le Haye Sainte and then he could focus all his troops on Hougoumont, surround it, and attack it from close range. Although in the fields to the east he saw movement through his telescope and sent cavalry to check it out. He now knew that the Prussians were coming but they were not close yet so if he could defeat the British and take their defensive position then he could have a chance against the Prussians, but Wellington was desperate to not let that happen and sent reinforcements to Le Haye Sainte and drove the French back. Now with the French pushing back the cavalry, led by lord Uxbridge, launched an attack on the French flank and made quick work of the French infantry, relentlessly weakened Napoleon s line but Wellington s left flank was also very weak. Napoleon could not launch another major attack until he had strengthened his line again. A few hours after being sent Napoleon s cavalry had reached the Prussian forces and the Prussians took the ground to the north-east of the battle and kept pushing at the French and forcing them to send more and more troops as the land kept switching WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 5
hands, but Bulcher set up a strong line as he had promised and relieved a lot of pressure of the British. Now Napoleon s troops were becoming very stretched so Napoleon had to capture Britain s central defence quickly, Le Haye Sainte. He sent waves of heavily armoured cavalry so the British had to change their formation into squares but this meant that they were very vulnerable to artillery so the British suffered heavy losses. After over 2 hours of defending Le Haye Sainte finally fell and now Napoleon could bring his artillery forward so the British had to try and defend the ridge until the Prussians arrived and Napoleon knew this, so he sent 6000 troops to try and capture the ridge. On the left the soldiers were facing Hougoumont so they suffered fire, but those on the side of Le Haye Sainte made it to the ridge easily. Now the British waited for the to attack behind some long grass and were ordered to stand and fire, so they were firing at almost point blank range at the french and muskets were extremely effective. Now the Bulcher with his army of Prussians were arriving and pursuing the French Imperial Guard. The French were forced to flee. After one final assault from the Prussians tens of thousands of French were left dead or dying but Napoleon was exiled again, and this time more efficiently, to St Helena, where he died 6 years later. William Henry Clerke, Old Carthusian William Henry Clerke was born on Friday 13th September 1793 to Sir William Henry Clerke, 8th Bt. and Byzantia Cartwright. His father was rector of Bury, Lancashire. He succeeded to the baronetcy when his brother, who was the favourite aide-de-camp to General John Burgoyne. Clerke came to Charterhouse in September 1803, when he was 10 years old, to Stewart s, which was a boarding house run by one of the assistant teachers, but in 1805 he moved to Gownboys, when he became a scholar, where he stayed for a further six years. Life at Charterhouse would have been very different to how it is now, you could join from the age of eight, and William joined only two years after that, and there was no fixed time for how long you stayed. Most boys stayed until university but some would only be a student for a short period of time. There was no distinction between age, you would be sorted in order of how intelligent you were, leading some boys to stay here for an elongated period. The house system would have been very different, with teachers setting up their own boarding houses outside of the school, and only scholars lived in Gownboys. Also, the school was not in Godalming, as we know it; it was in London. His brothers and father were also educated at Charterhouse. Due to the fact he was made a scholar after just two years it is evident that he must have been quite clever. However, not clever enough to beat his brothers; both of them came to the school as exhibitioners. WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 6
In 1811, the year William left Charterhouse, he was drafted into the army, to the service of the 52nd Regiment. He advanced up quickly, becoming Lieutenant on the 25th July that same year. This was a light infantry regiment that first saw service in the American War of Independence, after that they gained their county-affiliation with Oxfordshire, and they were also posted to India for the Anglo-Mysore wars, and after that they fought in most of the Napoleonic Wars, as part of the Light Division. They fought in the Peninsular War (1808-1814) and William fought in the battles of Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Tarbes and Toulouse. He received a Peninsula medal with four clasps for his efforts, this would have been a great achievement, as each clasp represents something different that he was honoured for. In 1815 the regiment fought at Waterloo, where he also received a Waterloo Medal, which was given to all who fought in the battle. They were instrumental in helping break the advance of the Imperial Guard. After the battle, the Allied powers occupied France, and the 52nd Battalion was the last to leave France before the Allies were to leave completely. It was this year that William was succeeded as 9th Battalion. In 1820, he married to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of George Watkin Kenrick of Mertyn Hall. Two years after, he was promoted to the rank of Captain, in 1823 he retired on half-pay but in 1851 he was made Lieut. Colonel, this meant he could have been in command of one battalion. He died at the Heath Salop on the 16th February 1861. Bibliography Ancestry Library. Available: http://ancestrylibrary.com. Last accessed 18th May 2015. Eds. Marsh and Crisp (1913). Alumni Carthusiani. Walworth Road: Grove Park Press. pg 192. Unknown. (2015). The Battle of Waterloo: The Day that decided Europe's fate.. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zwtf34j. Last accessed 18th May 2015. Unknown. (2014). The Battle of Waterloo. Available: http://www.nam.ac.uk/ waterloo200/. Last accessed 18th May 2015. Unknown. (2015). Britain's Greatest Battles - Waterloo. Available: http:// www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/britains-greatest-battles/waterloo. Last accessed 18th May 2015. WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 7
By Teddy Wright and Aaron Sahdev. WILLIAM HENRY CLERKE OC 8