Last shot of Waterloo?

 #ArchiveMystery #Archive30 day 19 This is an account of the service of a man of Beddgelert who had fought among the red coats in the Seventh Coalition on that bloody day, 18 June 1815. In almost the last volley of the conflict he had had a stroke of misfortune.

A  French bullet had entered his knee cap, an agonising injury. When the battle was over and nothing but the dead and wounded left he saw a woman going from one body to the other, robbing them. If one of them happened to be still alive she would tap him hard on his forehead with a little hammer to finish him off. She saw this man was watching her & she nodded to him, as much as to say, ‘All right, I will be with you presently.’

His gun was by his side, so he quietly stretched out his hand, picked it up gently, and pointed it at her. ‘The next minute she was tumbling head over heels,’ said he, ‘and that was the last shot at Waterloo.’ So my mystery is -was he indeed 1 of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers?

The daughter of Lloyd George (G-Grandmother of Dan Snow!)

 

#Archive30 Day 13 #Untoldstories @thehistoryguy @armymuseumsuk

A story from our Archive! Here are the nursing staff at Wern Hospital, Porthmadog 1914-18. This photo includes Lady Olwen Carey-Evans, who was a ward orderly, daughter of David Lloyd George and Gt-Grandmother of Dan Snow! The attached image is part of the RWF Museum's contribution to the AMOT Ogilby Muster Digitisation Project, which we have been working on.

 

Olwen Elizabeth Lloyd George (1892-1990) was the daughter of Liberal politician and Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. During the First World War, Olwen enrolled as a British Red Cross volunteer.  Her Red Cross card stated that from 1915-1916, she worked from June to October 1915 at the Red X Rest Station at Boulogne and the last month in HQ.  Then at Devonshire House until June 1916.

 

Olwen was engaged to Captain Thomas John Carey Evans, MC and he and Olwen were married on 19th June 1917 in a Baptist chapel described in the newspapers as “so tiny that it might easily fit into many a Mayfair drawing-room”.  The service was in Welsh.

Olwen and Thomas went to live in India where they remained in India until 1925.  They had four children.  Her granddaughter is the Canadian historian, Margaret MacMillan, and her great-grandson is the TV presenter and historian Dan Snow.

 

Thomas was knighted in 1924 so Olwen became Lady Carey Evans.  In 1969, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, being honoured for her services to hospitals and women’s organizations. Lady Carey Evans died on 2nd March 1990.