Waterloo veterans to be remembered at service in Leamington

Four wreaths will be laid at a Leamington church to remember veterans of Waterloo on the bicentenary of the battle.
The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford.The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford.
The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford.

Members of the 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery will lay the wreaths at All Saint’s church in honour of Maj-Gen Alexander MacDonald and Col Charles Gold who served the regiment during the Napoleonic Wars between 1799 and 1815.

Derek Billings will lay a wreath for his great-great grandfather Sgt-Maj William Lawton of the 15th Hussars and military historian David Eason will also pay tribute to Lt-Col John Clement Wallington of the 10th Hussars.

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The service will take place on Thursday June 18 from 10.45am to 11.15am.

Like with all of the veterans, Mr Eason has looked into Maj-Gen Macdonald’s past.

He said: “Alexander is believed to have been interred in the crypt at All Saints’.

“Above the old verger’s office a memorial plaque was erected which says, ‘sacred To the memory of the late Major General Alexander MacDonald C B and K St A Royal Artillery who died at Leamington on the 21st May 1840 aged 63 of which he had been 46 years an officer in the service. Gen. MacDonald was of the family of Glencoe, the eldest son of an officer distinguished for his bravery and good conduct: had been on active service in the West Indies, in Egypt, Walcheren, the fall of Dantzic and battle of Waterloo was a companion of the Bath and a Knight of the Russian Order of St Anne. This tribute to his memory is recorded by his surviving brother and sisters’.”

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Maj-Gen MacDonald, who moved to Leamington in 1839, was the great great grandson of Alexander or Alasdair MacDonald - the 13th Chief of the Scottish MacDonald Clan who was killed at the infamous massacre of Glencoe in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising in 1692.

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