Waterloo: The Wellies Since Then

For 200 years, Wellesleys have tried to get out of the long shadow of the Iron Duke. But how could they, when he is greeting from Pub signs everywhere and just about everybody owns and wears Wellington boots?

Obviously the mother of the Iron Duke knew him well; she is reported having said ‘Anyone can see he has not the cut of a soldier.’ But at least he didn’t take after his father who had fashionably died in debt at 46. The Duke was at Waterloo exactly at the same age.

Two centuries later, Jane takes her father and the readers through another war on the continent. In World War II, her father’s cousin died at Sarento, leaving her grandfather to become the seventh Duke some time later. This was not the only time the succession was warped. Like all major English families, wars and disastrous marriages have left their mark on them.

The present Duke married Diana McConnel during the war. The marriage took place in Jerusalem, where Diana’s father was chief of staff, just after a bomb had been discovered at the church. Diana didn’t even bother to tell anyone, least of all her bridegroom.

The late Queen Mother was descended from the Iron Duke’s elder brother Richard and his first wife French actress Hyacinthe Roland, who bore him five children before he married her. Later in life he would marry again, an American heiress from the early Dollar nobility.

She tells the story of poor Kitty Pakenham, the Iron Duke’s spurned wife. She also tells the story of Dottie, wife of the seventh Duke, who went off to live with Vita Sackville-West. A sensitive writer herself, she was also a friend of Yeats.

The book is neither a history lesson which would fill several volumes anyhow, nor does it pretend to be one. It’s rather a family’s history as seen by a member of the family, and therefore it is slightly biased. This is not a drawback, but rather a plus, as it makes it more believable and colourful. It’s a delightful read with some history lessons on the sideboard.