THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO - 16 BATTERY (SANDHAM’S COY)
When Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to France, the Allies at once set about reforming
their forces and the Duke of Wellington set up his Headquarters in Flanders. Captain Sandham’s
Company, 3 Bn RA, then at Enghien, eighteen miles South West of Brussels came under
Wellington’s command. It was equipped as a 9-pdr. Brigade1, having personnel and horses of the
Royal Artillery Drivers attached to enable it to act as a field battery, and was allotted to the 1st
(Guards) Brigade.
Captain Sandham’s Brigade was inspected by the Duke of Wellington shortly before hostilities
began and the Commander of the forces was so impressed by what he saw that he instructed
Major General Maitland, commanding the 1st (Guards) Brigade to inform Captain Sandham that
“The Duke of Wellington has desired me to communicate to you (and I have to request that you will
do so to the officers, non commissioned officers and soldiers under your command) his unqualified
approbation of the appearance of the Brigade, he commented on the horses, appointments and
every part of it with peculiar approbation.”
On the 16th June, the 1st Division, with Captain Sandham’s Company, reached the battlefield of
Quatre Bras after a gruelling 15 hour march in time to cover the withdrawal of the British and
Dutch-Belgian troops. On the morning of 18 June 1815 the Company were posted between La
Haye Sainte and Hougoumont in support of the 1st Division.
Here Sandham’s guns were well placed to take a leading role in the battle. Indeed, they are
credited as firing the first allied rounds of the battle and were in action in the final moments of the
Battle. The guns fired 1,100 rounds during the day, a prodigious expenditure for the muzzle loading
equipment of the period. The Battery even survived a charge of French Cavalry, cuirassiers, with
many of the company retreating into the Infantry squares behind them, whilst others remained with
the guns and were engaged in fierce hand to hand combat; the guns were never lost to the French.
There were 6 Guns in action with each crew consisting of 5 men and then a further 5 men to help
manhandle the guns and replace casualties. They used the 9-pounder, which weighed 1, 510 lbs
and had a range of 2, 400 yards when applied with an elevation of 10 degrees. Despite the position
of Sandham’s being in the thick of the infantry units there were only 3 casualties recorded, with
another 2 dying of wounds later on.
Such was the distinction with which the men of Sandham’s Company fought; they earned the
nickname of “The Waterloo Battery” from the Allied Infantry and Cavalry, although this title was not
bestowed on them until 1926. In total there were 109 men listed to receive the Waterloo Medal.
The Battery celebrates it annually on 18 June and its officers can routinely be heard drinking a
toast to “The Waterloo Battery” all year round.
The achievements on that day were not rewarded in the short term however, and after the
Battery’s return to Woolwich the Company was disbanded on 31st Jan 1819.
Captain Sandham was a man who continued to look after his men; Gunner John Barlow fought
throughout the Peninsula War and sustained a splinter wound at the siege of Badajoz in 1812. He
was admitted to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in 1844, aged 57, to be an in-pensioner thanks to a
letter of recommendation by Sandham. Here was the birth of our unofficial motto – ‘Once a
Sandham’s man, always a Sandham’s
The term ‘Brigade’ was originally applied to a company of artillery equipped
with mobile guns for service in the field.
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