‘Victory, sir!Victory!’ Prince is told joyous news at society ball Hero of 17 saves colours
THE Prince Regent was at a ball at 16 St James’s Square last night, London home of banker Edmund Boehm and his wife Dorothy, when the doors were flung open, the dancing (which had only just begun) abruptly stopped and a voice announced: ‘Victory, sir! Victory!’
The jubilant news came from the lips of Major the Hon Henry Percy of the 14th Light Dragoons, who had just arrived in town post haste from the Continent with the news that now set the capital — and soon the whole of Britain — alight with joy.
His uniform still blood-stained from the fighting, he carried in his hands the Duke of Wellington’s official dispatch describing his triumph over Napoleon.
To the excited onlookers he also waved two mud- spattered French flags topped with gold Eagles — the most prized possession of each regiment of the French army — captured during the battle, as symbols of Bonaparte’s downfall.
His Royal Highness seized on the dispatch and took it off to a private room where the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, read out Wellington’s words aloud to a select company.
‘The enemy was forced from his positions and fled in the utmost confusion,’ the noble Duke had written with typical calmness and lack of hyperbole. ‘It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assure you that the Army never upon any occasion conducted itself better.’
The ball broke up, cleared completely of guests in less than 20 minutes — much to Mrs Boehm’s annoyance — as they hurried away to pass on the incredible news.
There was also sobering reflection on the loss of life that must have occurred and anxiety about family and friends who might be on the extensive list of casualties.
The Prince Regent was apparently in tears. ‘It is a glorious victory,’ he was heard to say, ‘but the loss of life has been fearful and I have lost many friends.’
It had taken three full days for the news of the victory to be brought to London, and Major Percy’s journey in bringing it is a story in itself. Wellington began writing his dispatch on the morning of June 19, following but a few hours rest after the fray.
At midday, he handed it to Percy, to deliver personally to Earl Bathurst, the Secretary of State for War, in London, and then to the Prince Regent.
Percy left in a carriage to drive the long and arduous 75 miles to the port of Ostend, where the Royal Navy brig HMS Peruvian was waiting. The ship set sail, but was becalmed without wind halfway across the Channel. Percy took to the ship’s boat and was rowed into Broadstairs on the Kent coast at 3pm yesterday.
A carriage was found and he reached Earl Bathurst’s office in Downing Street at 10pm. But his quarry was not there. Bathurst was dining with his Cabinet colleague, the Earl of Harrowby, at his house in Grosvenor Square.
Percy found him there, handed him the dispatch to read, then took it (and the two captured Eagles), to the Prince Regent at Mrs Boehm’s party for his dramatic entrance and his even more dramatic news.
Percy’s labours were not over even then. From the Boehms, he made his way to his family home in Portman Square, only to find it already besieged by those who had heard the news and were anxious to learn the fate of loved ones.
He gave them what information he could before retiring to bed. THE unit which suffered the most was the 1st Battalion of the 27th Inniskillings, which lost some two-thirds of its entire strength of some 700 men.
The battalion was engaged by French artillery at a range of just 300 yards. With its ranks tightly deployed in a square, the Inniskillings proved to be rich pickings for Napoleon’s cannon, and the latest reports indicate that 105 have been killed, with a further 373 wounded.
Nevertheless, it appears that the Battalion’s colours have not been lost to the French, thanks in part to the great bravery of the 17-year-old Ensign John Ditmas, who kept them secure, despite himself being wounded.