Larsen to tackle role of the Duke

A former Invercargill man will take to the battle as the ‘‘Iron Duke’’ at a 200th anniversary re-anactment of the battle of Waterloo.

The Independent has reported Alan Larsen, 55, a former James Hargest College student will take the lead role.

Larsen, a history buff, nearly died in another re-anactment of an American civil war combat in bath in 1986.

Even though the soldiers were firing blanks, a sharpshooter had left the brass tip of his ramrod in the musket, accidentally making himself a bullet, Larsen told the Independent.

His carotid artery was sliced in half and an ex-army medic who happened to be standing beside him ripped open the wound and pinched the two ends of the artery together to stop him bleeding out.

Larsen is expected to ride over much of the battlefield during the anniversary of Waterloo on June 18, as the real duke was ‘‘everywhere, putting himself in incredible danger, steadying the nerves of young soldiers with his coolness under fire’’.

It will be the pinnacle of a reenactment career that began when, aged 18, he was summoned to England from Invercargill, New Zealand, by Brigadier Peter Young, founder of the Sealed Knot English Civil War re-enactment group.

‘‘I wrote to him mentioning I had just left school.

‘‘He wrote back: ‘Come to England and join my Lifeguard of Horse.’ So I did.

‘‘Two men contributed to giving me the performance confidence I need to be Wellington. One was the brigadier, an ex-Second World War commando. The other was Joe Strummer of The Clash.’’

Larsen now lives in Derbyshire.