William Aldworth Clarke, Waterloo

[ChrisO]

I have an interesting and very confusing brick wall to break through:

1.  Anecdotal evidence from early diaries held in Melbourne, Victoria, Aust indicates that Ensign William Aldworth Clarke (WAC) served under Wellington as a Jnr Aide de Camp at the Battle of Waterloo, and indeed I have located a William Clarke from the 4th Regiment of Foot who was an Ensign with Wellington at Waterloo.  However, in all military records that I have been able to source, WAC was repeatedly shown as being an Ensign of the 40th Regiment of Foot, both before and after Waterloo.  In fact, the 40th Regiment were not even in Brussels on the night of the Ball.

2. The Diaries allude to WAC being present at the Duchess of Richmond's Ball on the night news came of Napoleon's imminent invasion and this is highly likely if he were with Wellington's staff that evening.  So how can someone who was with the 40th Regiment be suddenly assigned to the 4th?  Was this possible? 

3. The family whom I believe WAC is descended from were from Cork City, Co Cork, Ireland.  A list of the "Freemen of Cork" actually shows both a Lt William Clarke, 4th Regiment and William Clarke, Ensign 40th Regiment "for his gallant conduct in the Battle of Waterloo" (he lost his left arm to canon shot) as being Freemen of Cork.   Neither entries are dated.  So it would seem that they were 2 separate people.

4.  A book printed in 1976 with references to the Clarke family of Cork, mentions William Clarke, Capt 4th Regiment who emigrated to NSW and married a Miss Manning in 1835.  However, WAC died in 1827 as a retired Lt. Garner.  Again, it would seem that they were two different men.

5.  However, indications are that William [Henry] Clarke, 4th Regiment was quite likely born around 1802-1803, making him ridiculously young (12-13 years old) to have been a Jnr Aide de Camp of Wellington at Waterloo.  WAC was born in 1792, making him 23 at Waterloo. 

Has anyone have any suggestions as to how I could unravel this mystery.  PLEASE...
Regards
Chris

[km1971]

ADCs could have been assigned in London. Their parent regiment did not have to be present. WAC was promoted from Ensign to Lt in the 40th Regiment in 1821 - http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/17699/pages/895

Officers were also transferred - especially in the heat of battle - to regiments that had a need.

Unfortunately the LG use OCR to turn the print into a database, and the old copies are often 'spotty' - so lots of mistakes are made and entries missed. You need to be creative in your searches. You could just try 40th. Once you have got the results you should sort them in date order and work through them.

I have an army list from c1819 somewhere. Men at Waterloo have a gothic W against their name in later army lists. So I will have a look. Or you could look for other army lists online.

It would be unusual to list WAC as just plain William Clarke and later give him his full name. But nothing is certain.

The LG has Wm Henry Clarke being promoted from Lt to Captain in the 4th in 1830. The Waterloo medal roll (on Ancestry) has a Lt Wm Clarke in the 4th Regiment. So he cannot be yours as  WAC only made Lt in 1821. It doesn't mean he was W Henry C either. You will need to follow him in the LG as well.

Ken

[km1971]

I have found the Staff Officers at Waterloo on the medal roll and no ADC called Clarke is mentioned

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/content/viewer.aspx?dbid=1686&iid=31794_221385-00005&sid=&gskw=

I can find only one Ensign as an ADC - to Maitland.

Ken

[ShaunJ]

He does have the W by his name in the 1821 Army List http://tinyurl.com/nqu9j76

[km1971]

'served under Wellington' would apply to the whole army. So it does not mean he reported directly to Wellington. So he was probably an informal ADC. At least he was there.

Ken

[ChrisO]

Hi Ken & Shaun
Thank you both for replying to my post on WAC at Waterloo.  Both responses have been very helpful.  I do have two further questions which  you may be able to answer:
1.  What determined which Regiment an Officer (Ensign in WAC's case) joined?  Was it purely vacancy or was it something like family tradition. 
2.  At what age could a young man join the Army?
Regards
Chris

[haliared]

Hi there,
I'm not sure if this is any help or has already been covered but the Waterloo Medal Roll of 1815 lists - wounded - W A CLARKE, Ensign with Captain P Bishop's Company, 1st Battalion, 40th Regiment of Foot.

[Stirling 76]

This is quite a coincidence, I'm researching a soldier in the 40th Regiment at Waterloo who was a friend of WAC. If you go into this link which is the History of the 40th, you'll find him mentioned. The guy I'm researching along with WAC, joined the 40th at 16 and was an ensign at 17, WAC probably did the same. He Joined Jan 1814.
https://archive.org/details/historicalrecor00smytgoog

Also there is a Waterloo roll call online as well, his record is on there, it is
http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/GreatBritain/Challis/Images151-200/151.pdf
I have him stationed in Stirling Castle in 1817. It might just be another friend who was at Waterloo with him was an assistant Surgeon and might have been the one to amputate his arm.
Hope this helps,
Stewart.

[Martin Aaron]

Two different men -
1. 4th Foot - Lieutenant William Henry Clarke. Listed as a Captain in 1830.
2. 40th Foot - Ensign William Aldworth Clarke. Served in number 4 company. Wounded, lost left arm. Promoted Lieutenant 1821 and listed as put on half-pay same year.

Neither were ADCs, but such stories are very common. If all of the stories passed down over the years were true, it would mean 99% of soldiers at Waterloo (all 28,000 of them) had some personal interaction with The Duke! Over the years I've read that some chap or other "held Wellington's horse", "was given a sword by Wellington" "carried Wellington's flag at Waterloo (!)", "was thanked personally by Wellington" (some young Irish drummer) and so on.