Waterloo - The Medal
By John Hayward

“...... I would beg leave to suggest to your Royal Highness the expediency of giving the non-commissioned officers and soldiers engaged in the Battle of Waterloo, a Medal...”.

This suggestion made by the Duke of Wellington to the Duke of York in his Despatches, just ten days after his victory over the French, swiftly gave rise to a letter from the Master of the Mint W.W. Pole to the President of the Royal Academy on 11 July 1815 which heralded the first British Medal to be given to all ranks present in a Campaign - an award which was not only named, but was also given to the next of kin of those killed in action or died of their wounds.

The Directive

“I have been commanded to strike two Medals at the Royal Mint in Commemoration of the Battles of Les Quatre Bras and Waterloo; - One, in Gold, of the largest size, to embrace the Exploits of the Allied Army under the Duke of Wellington the Prince of Orange & Duke of Brunswick, and of the Prussian Army under Field Marshal Blucher. This Medal will probably be given to each of the Sovereigns in Alliance with the Prince Regent, to their Ministers and Generals”.

The Medal 'of the largest size' referred to resulted in the dies for the Pistrucci Waterloo Medal of 140 mm diameter which, after a number of design disagreements, was never issued to whom it was intended and the whole idea was finally abandoned in 1849.

“The other will be struck in Bronze, of small size, to be given to every Officer and Soldier in the British Service who was present at the Battles; the Device on this latter must therefore be more particularly marked as expressive of the Services of our own Troops and Commander. Both Medals must have the Prince Regent’s Head on the Obverse...”!! Mr Pole’s letter goes on to invite Artists belonging to the Royal Academy to submit designs for the two Medals. In the event a subsequent notice advised the Artists to confine their designs to the large Medal as a design for the small one had been formed by the Chief Engraver of the Mint from an ancient Greek coin of Elis selected by the Master from the collection of Richard Paine Knight Esq. The head of the Prince Regent was taken from a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

The Preparation

Mr Pole obviously very anxious to proceed with this important departure from the normal routine wrote to J.W. Morrison, Deputy Master of the Mint on 27 August: “I send you a few names that will enable us to begin lettering the Medals as soon as Jerome is ready for us. I shall have more names immediately and the whole number very soon...”. Jerome and Harrison, two Mint Artificers, were awarded a £100 gratuity for devising a modification to existing ‘Milling’ machines, normally employed in serrating or ‘graining’ edges of coins, to accommodate the naming of Medals. The serrated sliding bar which marked the coins was replaced by the Artificers with a device for holding steel type, composed in a line of naming details which were then ‘rolled into’ the edge of the (unmounted) Medal. Just three days later, Mr Pole wrote again to Mr Morrison this time with a number of interesting Memoranda - the pressure to commence and to complete the Waterloo operation was on:

“If the various branches of the Department proceed in the manner I have pointed out, Twenty Thousand Medals will be ready for Delivery by the Ninth of November next. I rely upon the zeal of the Heads of the Manufacture for seeing that the utmost exertions are used to complete the work. The whole grace of the distribution of the medals would be lost if any unavoidable delay was to take place in their issue; and, in the very perfect state of the Machinery of the Mint, no excuse could be allowed to us by the Public in such an event. You will be so good as to let it be generally understood that no other business what ever is to be suffered to interfere with the manufacture of the Medals; and particularly that no branch of the manufacture is to relax its efforts under an idea that it will be ready before any other branch is prepared to carry forward the work. Every person is to act as if the whole measure depended upon his individual exertions. If any extraordinary assistance should be wanted, you will be so good as to afford it to the full extent that may be necessary - and any suggestions that may be offered towards methodizing the Medals as they are lettered, I request may be submitted to me for consideration...”. “...I have applied to the Commander in Chief for the Names of the Officers and Soldiers who fought in the Battles, and I hope the List will be sent to you in a short time. I shall transmit to you the Extraordinary Gazette containing the names of the Wounded Officers, which will enable you to commence the lettering before you receive the General List”. “...The Moneyers’ work begins tomorrow morning (31 Aug) Rolling the Copper for the Medals, to which they are to put their whole force, and to cut out the Blanks as fast as possible.... the Rolling can be finished, if the Moneyers begin to roll at daylight tomorrow, by Saturday night (2nd Sept) ...if the rolling begins at daylight tomorrow, the Cutting may begin in the course of the day, and if the Rolling and Cutting continue without intermission for 10 hours each day, Sundays excepted, ...the Cutting may be finished on Monday night (4th Sept). The Blanks will begin Milling on Monday morning (4th Sept); they will be finished ready for annealing on Thursday evening (7th September). The annealing will be done on Friday the 8th Sept...”.

The Dies

“Mr Wyon will have the preparatory dies ready for striking on the 5th Octr, with one coining press which is ready. The 40,000 Medals will be struck in 3 days, viz by the 8th Octr. The Bronzing and Lettering will begin together on the 6th Octr, the day after the preparatory dies begin to work and, with the arrangements hereafter named, can be finished in 30 days, viz by the 5th November. As the Bronzing and Lettering will commence on the 6th Octr, a sufficient number of Medals will be ready for striking on the 30th Octr, the day on which the finished dies will begin to work”.

The Lettering

“There must be six sets of Marking Machines made for Lettering the Medals - 18 Sets of Letters are wanting for the Machines. The Type cutters, Mr Phillips, Mr Wyon’s man, Mr Lawson’s man and another person, who is to come to the Mint tomorrow, have orders to make as many of the Types as they can deliver by the 12th Septr. Jerome to get as many Compositors as he may think necessary.

The above Marking Machines will enable us to work two of the Milling Machines. When the two Machines are at work the Lettering may be completed in 30 days, viz at the rate of one piece a minute, for each machine working 10 hours a day. The six sets of Marking Machines will be ready for working on the 11th Septr. Supposing we begin to letter on Monday the 12 Sept, the Lettering may be finished by the 20th Octr...”.

The Bronzing

“The Bronzing and Lettering may begin on the same day (viz 12 Sept) and will consequently finish (in 30 Days) on the 12th Oct, but, omitting Sunday, say 16th Oct. - Four Hearths can be used in the Smith’s shop. Nine persons must be employed to work them - They can bronze 72 Dozen in a day, viz 18 Dozen at each Hearth, which would finish the Bronzing in 48 days from commencement. Two more Hearths must be put in the Turners’ shop. They can be finished in one fortnight from tomorrow, viz by the 13th Sept. - Orders have been given to the Bricklayer (Cox) to set up this additional Hearth, which will enable us to finish Bronzing in 30 days. ...Mr Wyon will be ready with his Dyes by the 10th of Oct. If we work 8 Presses at the rate of a Piece per minute for each Press (working 10 hours a day) the Forty Thousand Medals will be struck in Ten days, and be ready for delivery on the 9th of November”.

It is quite clear from the content of Mr Poole’s original letter to the President of the Royal Academy and abstracts from Mr Pool’s memoranda relating to the Moneyers, Bronzing and the Lettering schedules that the Waterloo Medal was to be produced in bronzed copper. It is equally clear from the correspondence that certain minting procedures similar to those employed during the production of Coins, ie. Rolling - bringing metal ingots down to the required thickness; Cutting - cutting out blanks; and the Milling and annealing process, had already been completed with base metal. Unfortunately due to a gap in Master to Deputy Master correspondence to March 1816 one must assume, even taking into account a number of delays which included a serious fire in the Royal Mint, that the preparations for the bronzed striking was well ahead. One thing is certain - it must have been quite a shock to Mr Morrison and all those working on the Medal at the Mint when on 10 January 1816 Mr Pole wrote a letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury which surely was copied to the Mint. “His Royal Highness the Prince Regent having signified to me his pleasure that Medals, to be distributed to the Officers and Men who served in the Battle of Waterloo, should be struck at the Royal Mint in Fine Silver, I beg to request your Lordships will provide the necessary quantity of Bullion for this purpose. The weight of the Medal is proposed to be One Ounce and the number to be struck will probably amount to Forty Thousand; but to enable the Mint to Carry on the work with expedition a larger quantity of silver must be provided than will ultimately be used, and I therefore submit to your Lordships the necessity of furnishing me with Sixty Thousand ounces of Fine Silver for this service. It will be my duty, when the Medals are finished, to render to your Lordships an exact account of the Silver used and to dispose of the remainder as you shall direct. The Dyes and Machinery for striking the Medals are nearly ready to work; the Silver therefore should be sent to the Mint as soon as it can be procured”.

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The Deputy Master sent a similar letter on the same day to the Bank of England but requested additionally that a quantity of silver in the Government’s possession of an “inferior standard” be exchanged for “Fine Silver” - agreed by the Treasury on 19 January. Having dealt with the Prince Regent’s decision to strike the Medal in Fine Silver out of chronological order I now revert to 31 August 1815 and continue with any relevant numismatic or historical notes gleaned from the correspondence 31.8.1815 Sir Henry Torrens (Horse Guards) to the Duke of Wellington “...the Commander in Chief requests Regimental Lists of all the British and German Legion Corps to be prepared and transmitted without delay...”. Regimental Lists were sent from H.Q. Paris to Horse Guards and thence to Mr Morrison at the Mint by 18 September.

14.9.1815 Morrison to Pole “... few letters (Type) have yet been finished - but we hope to get sufficient stock in time for striking...” We find some difficulties with the Lists sent from the War Office”.

19.9.1815 Pole to Morrison “... you must stick close to the letter Founders and to the War Office - I apprehend most delay and some confusion in the names, but I think the best mode will be to leave all the names we are not certain of to the last...”.

22.9.1815 Morrison to Pole “... Mr Lawson is returned from Birmingham - he has ordered the loops for the Medals - Yesterday I received ... a large packet of the Muster Rolls of the ‘Waterloo Men’, they include men who were wounded in the action - these last we have already copied and we find some difficulty in separating them from the other names ...”. - Pole replied on the 29th “I am glad you have got Lists from Sir Henry Torrens - lose no time in copying them, for I am more apprehensive of delay in the names than in any other part of the manufacture. The loops will have to be of Blue Steel - why has Mr Lawson altered them to Bronze...”.

28.9.1815 Morrison to Pole “...On the 5th Octr you know we are to expect Mr Wyon's preparatory die and, until we are furnished with this, no actual proceeding in the Medals can be undertaken. I am glad to say however that all the necessary preparations are in progress. We have received several additional letters which are well made and shall tomorrow complete 9 sets so that we shall not stop for the lettering - as fast as they come in Jerome and Harrison file and adjust them in order that they may range and lay even in the machinery. I call’d at the Horse Guards yesterday upon Mr Dighton, one of the principal clerks in Sir Henry Torrens’s office, they have obligingly furnished us with all the Lists they have got and they think we have now very nearly the whole. Mr Dickson, Mr Barlow, Mr Field, young Mushet & myself occasionally copy them as fast as we can,...”. On 31 October 1815 a serious fire occurred at the Royal Mint. Extensive damage was done to the Great Rolling Room, the Cutting-out Room, the Adjusting Rolls Room; the Great Lathe Room; The Turning Room over the Marking Room, the Drying & Shaking Room and the Coining Room. As a result production at the Royal Mint was halved until the roofs were repaired and certain machinery replaced.

10.1.1816 Refer to Mr Pole’s letter dealt with earlier in these notes re the Prince Regent’s decision to strike the Medal in Fine Silver instead of Bronzed Copper.

4.3.1816 Pole to Earl Bathurst “...The Medals which I received His Royal Highness the Prince Regent’s pleasure to strike, for the Officers and Men who fought at the Battle of Waterloo, have been some time in preparation, and those for the General and Staff Officers are now ready for delivery”. “I propose packing the Medals in Boxes marked on the outside so as to specify the Corps or Regiment to which the Medals within may belong; and there will be packed in each Box a copy of the List transmitted from the Horse Guards, which copy will be certified by the Principal Officers of the Royal Mint. The Medals are all fitted with Rings, and an quarter of a yard of Ribbon for each will be packed in the Boxes”. “The Name of each Officer and Man, who is to receive a Medal, is impressed upon the edge of the Medal destined for him, and care will be taken to pack the Medals in the order in which the Names stand on the several Lists”. “The number of names, including Officers and Men, which have been transmitted from the Horse Guards to the Mint amount to more than 35,000; and I am in hopes that we shall be enabled to deliver finished Medals, packed as I have already mentioned, at the rate of about 1000 per day from this time forward until the whole are completed”. Each Medal contains one ounce of Fine Silver, intrinsically worth, at the present market price of Bullion, about six shillings. There is no difference whatever in the quality, figure or workmanship, between the Medals for the Officers and those intended for the Soldiers...”. 10.3.1816 Extract from a memorandum by the Commander in Chief “...His Royal Highness (the Prince Regent) has further been pleased to command that the Riband issued with the Medal, shall never be worn but with the Medal suspended to it ...”. (The London Gazette also refers). 16.4.1811 Production Board Minute “The undertaking by the Compositors for lettering the Medals at 4/6 per 100, was this day completed. But it being necessary to retain one of the Compositors for Brockages and other Pieces that would want replacing and lettering, it was ordered by the Board that Mr Spilsbury should be employed at the rate of £2.10s per week”. 22.4..1816 Pole to Morrison “Have you received authority from the Treasury to pay for the Waterloo Medal Ribbons - the man who furnished them was promised immediate payment, in consequence of which they were procured at a low rate. Please look into this”.

3.6.1816 “The Master of the Mint has directed Waterloo Medals to be struck in Fine Silver and to be presented as a Gift by him to the persons undermentioned. On the edge of the Medal is to be inscribed ‘The Gift of the Master of the Mint to the Earl of Liverpool, and so on, according to the Name’ “.

HRH the Commander in Chief
Earl of Harrowby Cabinet Minister
Lord Eldon Cabinet Minister
Earl of Westmoreland Cabinet Minister
Earl of Liverpool Cabinet Minister
Rt Hon N. Vansittart Cabinet Minister
Lord Viscount Melville Cabinet Minister
Earl of Mulgrave Cabinet Minister
Lord Viscount Sidmouth Cabinet Minister
Lord Viscount Castlereagh Cabinet Minister
Earl Bathurst Cabinet Minister
Rt Hon Charles Bathurst Cabinet Minister
Rt Hon Charles Long
James W. Morrison Esq Board Officer of the Mint
John Barton Esq Board Officer of the Mint
Robert Bingley Esq Board Officer of the Mint
William Dickson Esq Board Officer of the Mint
James Lawson Esq Board Officer of the Mint
The Provost of the Company of Moneyers
Thomas Wyon Esq
Rt Hon George Canning
Marquis Wellesley
Lady Eleanor Butler
Rt Hon Speaker of the House of Commons
James Crofton Esq
John Rennie Esq
The British Museum
Ambassador of the Netherlands
Lady Fitzroy Somerset
The Governor and Company of the Bank of England

“The Deputy Master of the Mint will be so good as to pay the Expense of these Medals and charge it to the Master’s private Account”. A small number of ‘Master’s Waterloo Gifts’ are known in addition to the foregoing List (Mint records refer).

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22.6.1816 Duke of Wellington in Paris to Sir Henry Torrens “I enclose a List of Men of the 4th Regt omitted in the Returns of Waterloo Medals to which I beg to draw your attention, as I think there is some mistake respecting these Medals. In my opinion no Individual or Corps ought to have them that was not in the action of one of the days the 16th-17th-18th June. Yet you will see several in this List who were not in any action; and I believe they have been sent to Sir Charles Colville & all his Divn - who were not in any of the actions. Is this right?” There have been many in agreement with the Duke on this subject from 1816 to date.

5.7.1816 Torrens to Pole “...I enclose you a List of the Staff and Regimental Officers who were killed at the battle of Waterloo as well as those who died of their wounds, in order that Medals may be struck and presented to their nearest Relatives...”.

10.7.1816 Morrison to Torrens “I am directed by the Master of the Mint to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th instant, enclosing a list of the General and Staff Officers killed at the Battle of Waterloo, as well as those who have died of their wounds, in order that Medals may be struck for their relatives; and I am to inform you that in consequence of the very greatest importance of giving all possible dispatch to the new Silver Coinage, every part of the Machinery and Apparatus of the Mint, as well as the whole time and labour of the Officers & Workmen, are fully applied to the business and that the least delay to the Coinage would be of the greatest detriment to the Public Service. It is therefore very desirable that the striking of the Medals for the deceased Officers and others, as well as for the Regiment of the 1st Hussars K.G.L. (the List of which has been omitted) should, for the present, be suspended. Copies of the names will, in the mean time, be prepared so that, as soon as opportunity occurs, the Mint may resume the operation of striking the Medals”. 8.1.1817 Adjutant General H.Q. Paris to Torrens “I have the honor by command of the Duke of Wellington of transmitting to you the remaining unappropriated Medals which have been collected from the Regiments in this Army. The enclosed List shews the names of the Men for whom they were intended, and the Regimental Lists, which I also enclose, indicate in what manner the former Medals were disposed of which did not belong to men present with the Regiment”.

3.2.1818 Torrens to Pole “I have the honor to transmit to you a List of outstanding claims for Waterloo Medals which the Commander in Chief is very desirous to obtain for the Individuals therein named, and understanding that little difficulty can attend the striking the Medals required, provided an equal number of those this Office, which have been returned from the different Regiments, are sent to the Mint, Sir Henry Torrens has directed that 78 of these Medals shall accompany this letter. 27.9.1828 “Mr Morrison presents his compliments to Lord Fitzroy Somerset and sends a Waterloo Medal for Private Israel Harvey, 1st Batt 95th Regiment, in lieu of the one returned to the Mint in his Lordship’s note of the 13th instant. Mr Morrison thinks it proper to mention to Lord Fitzroy Somerset that the machinery which was used for the fabrication of the Waterloo Medals having been broken up for the purpose of being applied to other operations of the Coinage, it will be extremely difficult and expensive to remark the Medals in future - he therefore submits to his Lordship whether, under the circumstance and in consideration of the long period which has elapsed since the commencement of the service in 1815, a limit may now be put to the return of any further Medals to the Mint. 23.4.1830 Morrison to Lord Fitzroy Somerset “I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship’s letter of the 12th inst inclosing one from Lt Col Woodford for procuring, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, a Waterloo Medal to be struck for Wm Dyke of the Grenadier Guards, and at the same time transmitting an unappropriated Medal for that purpose. I now return that Medal which has been restruck agreeably to your Lordship’s request”.

“The Machinery formerly used for this purpose having been broken up, as your Lordship was informed by me letter of 27th September 1828, a considerable difficulty, as well as expense is now incurred in altering the letters upon the edges and restriking the Medals. It is therefore hoped that your Lordship will see the expediency of discontinuing the return of any further Medals for alteration”.

For some years after the issue of the Medal in 1816, a number of replacements due to loss, damage, error in issue, mistakes etc were requested from Horse Guards. Each request was accompanied by an ‘unappropriated Medal’ taken from the Horse Guards’ mountain of ‘returns’ which included duplicates, errors and unissued deserters’ medals. Although Mr Morrison in his letters of 27.9.1828 and 23.4.1830 to Lord Fitzroy Somerset set out the difficulties at that time to restrike or to ‘remark’ any Waterloo in future due to ‘the machinery formerly used for the purpose having been broken up’ and how difficult and expensive it would be in ‘altering the letters upon the edges’, it was suggested by the Mint just five months after their last letter to Fitzroy Somerset, that similar presses and a ‘naming contrivance employed in the fabrication of the Waterloo Medal’ be used to produce the first Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (Army), the issue of which commenced in 1831. The Royal Mint directed by the long-suffering, but wholly efficient Deputy Master Mr J.W. Morrison produced a total of 37,638 Medals. Steel ‘Letter types’ cost £34.4s and the Compositors employed to set the naming details were paid a total of £103.5s.3d.

*For emphasis, occasionally I have inserted bold type in the extracts from correspondence. JBH.

THIS MONTH’S HAYWARDISM:

If in doubt, leave it out.