The Duke of Wellington free house, Wareham

This row of houses in Wareham's East Street dates mainly from the early 18th century, some buildings are of earlier origin.


"a damned serious business"

Arthur Wellesley, the Ist Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was one of the most capable of British military figures.  His fame is principally based on the victory at the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday 18th June 1815; his brilliant earlier military campaigns in India and Spain have largely been forgotten.

Waterloo was to be the first and only military encounter between Wellington and Napoleon.  Wellington's makeshift army of largely inexperienced Anglo-Dutch troops was pitted against Napoleon's battle-hardened soldiers; their armies were roughly equal in number.

Wellington's core strategy was to create a strong defensive position and await the arrival of the separate Prussian army under Blücher.  At mid-afternoon, when the intense pressure exercised by the French was about to turn the battle in their favour, the Prussians arrived.  The French army had to be redeployed to counter the attack from a second front, and a few hours later had disintegrated.

If this was not Wellington's greatest victory, it was nonetheless his most important battle.  He was well aware of the difficulties of the task entrusted to him and his army, and was not exaggerating when he said of it:

"It has been a damned serious business...  Blücher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. … By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there."