Probus meeting

East Kilbride Probus Club learned of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia at their latest meeting.

President Jim Ballantyne, opened the meeting and intimated the sad death of one of their members, Ian Cadenhead, and a one-minute silence was held.

Mr Ballantyne then introduced the speaker Roy Johnstone, who club members will have known from previous visits.

He was a solicitor for some 40 years with a great love of history and has given more than 240 talks in his retirement.

Mr Johnstone began by saying that Napoleon had been born in Corsica in 1769. He excelled in maths, history and geography and went on to train as an artillery officer involved in the French Revolution. Napoleon drove the English out of Toulon, going on to put down riots in Paris.

The revolution had lost so many top people to the guillotine that he rose swiftly to the top and by age 24 he was Commander in Chief.

He hated the English and wanted to invade but his navy was too weak against the all-powerful English, therefore he abandoned that idea, switching his eye to Russia.

Napoleon had wanted to be elevated to King but with the shadow of the recent revolution, he settled for Emperor.

He had made peace with England and Austria but it was short-lived and he rampaged through Europe winning some 53 battles out of 60.

In 1805, he defeated Russia and Austria but he himself was defeated by the English navy at Trafalgar in 1805.

Then in 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia with 660,000 men.

With mixed languages within the troops and mixed abilities, the Russians kept withdrawing closer to Moscow, stretching Napoleon’s supply lines. This was coupled with the onslaught of winter, which he had miscalculated.

His original supplies were for just three weeks and he lost 28,000 French at the battle of Borodino.

He pressed on short of supplies and eventually entered Moscow and stayed for five weeks while his men pillaged and raped their way through the population.

After returning to France, he wanted to re-arm but to no avail as there was now The Triple Alliance of the Prussian, Austrian and British.

He was exiled to Elba but escaped to Marseille and on to Paris where he was greeted in triumph.

His last hurrah came in 1815 at the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon fled to Paris where he surrendered to a British naval captain and was then exiled to St Helena. Aged 51, in 1851, he died of stomach cancer. His body was later exhumed and taken back to Paris where the catafalque is on display to this day.

The vote of thanks was given by Eddie Holmes, who said that this had been an amazing talk and the meeting was closed by Mr Ballantyne.

The next meeting will be on March 1 with a topic on‘Telling Lies during Wartime’from Ian Garden.

To find out more contact the secretary, Eddie Holmes, on 01355 234 942 or go to the website.