From Inverness to Waterloo

During the blitz in World War II, Nazi Germany bombed London over a period of eight months, killing tens of thousands of British citizens and destroying millions of buildings. Amongst the casualties were many of Great Britain's archives. Such is the loss of many documents pertaining to British men who fought in the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo. A small selection of documents survived, but in researching Donald Williamson, I was warned by multiple archivists to keep my expectations low as most enlistment documents were lost. 

Despite still being unable to track down Donald's enlistment documents, likely lost in the fire and rubble of Nazi bombardment, we have been lucky enough that Donald's discharge papers not only exist but have been digitised, immortalising them and making them available to read and share amongst descendants for generations to come. 

Attached are Donald's military discharge papers. It holds a lot of the most important information we could want about him during this period including which regiment and battalion he fought in, what battles he fought in, and the wounds he received in battle. 

As can be read above, Donald enlisted in 1804 in Inverness, as the 79th were raising a 2nd Battalion. He was later fed into the 1st Battalion following the loss of men in battle in the 1st. He fought in the Battles of Bussaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Toulouse and Waterloo, and the Sieges of Denmark, Flushing, Cádiz and Burgos. These are summarised as the Campaigns of Denmark in 1807; Spain, Portugal and Flushing in 1808 & 1809; Spain, Portugal and the South of France 1810 - 1813; and Flanders in France in 1815 - 1818.

He was left with a wound in his back at Copenhagen; a wound to his left side and finger in Fuentes de Oñoro, and through the thigh at Waterloo. Donald was finally discharged in February 1826. 

As you will read about in the previous post, you will also note a slightly different age to his real age due to height restrictions for different ages in the military.

A huge thank you once again to donor Julie Williamson for her donation on my Ko-fi site which allowed me to make a research request to the Highlander's Museum at Fort George. In doing so, we now have a much richer idea of what the 79th Regiment of Foot did in each of these places. I have just completed writing Donald's chapter for the book and look forward to sharing these details with you all in the coming months.

Thank you also to those who have made new donations both through Ko-fi and externally, from Graeme Hutton and Linda Podvoiskis. These are being used to access documents about Donald Williamson, Charles Williamson, as well as Williamsons at the first and second World Wars, all of which I look forward to obtaining and sharing here. 

If you would like to make a donation, please visit https://ko-fi.com/toddwilliamson