DID YOU KNOW?

Duel Personalities

A bit like Gordon Brown and Tony Blair settling their differences with pistols - in 1809 government ministers Lord Castlereagh and George Canning fought a duel over a disagreement. Neither was badly hurt. 

Doing A Runner

Fans of cowboy films will recall the expression "let's vamoose!" - but it has its origins in the Peninsular War. The British soldiers formed a poor opinion of their Spanish counterparts in the regular army, believing them over-keen to remove themselves from the battlefield at the sight of the enemy. The Spanish "Vamos!" (let's go!) soon became "vamoose" to redcoat wags. 

Got No Sole

When the soldiers of Sir John Moore’s army got back to England many of them were in a very poor state of health. Some of these scarecrow-like individuals were seen landing at Falmouth by no less a figure than  one of the great engineer- designers of the age, Isembard Kingdom Brunel. He was appalled in particular at the poor quality of the men’s shoes and instantly set about designing a vastly improved model, later adopted by the army.

Sack the Bard

The love affair between the English and sherry goes back a long way. Chaucer was a fan and when Shakespeare shows Falstaff’s fondness for “sack” he is, in fact, describing sherry.

Marriage A Lottery

The Napoleonic Wars weren't just about men fighting; women (and children) marched with the armies and shared the perils and discomforts of war. But only a certain number of women were allowed to join their men when the regiments went overseas. For a company of a hundred soldiers, only six wives might travel. They drew lots marked "to go" or "not to go". But who were the lucky ones?

Carrying Baggage

The soldiers in Wellington's marched with around eighty pounds of arms and equipment. That is something like the hold baggage allowance for TWO PEOPLE on an average budget flight today. Two heavily packed suitcases, dressed in heavy, scratchy, woollen clothes - all in the heat of a Spanish summer...

Quantiy versus Quality

The India Pattern "Brown Bess" musket didn't have a sight. The idea was to fire volleys at close range, doing damage with the sheer weight of flying metal. At more than a hundred yards the effect was questionnable - at less than that the concentrated fire was lethal. The relatively new rifles were accurate and had longer range, but were much slower to load.