Being the father of sons one tries to make history interesting and the anecdote of Lord Anglesey (Then still Lord Uxbridge) at Waterloo fits the bill. As the last shots of the battle were fired a stray shot smashed his leg. Turning to Wellington who was just next to him he commented with immense sang froid, "By God sir, I've lost my leg," to which the Iron Duke replied, 'By God sir, so you have." There is a story that he went on the anniversary of the battle to dine with his sons at the table on which the amputation was performed.
He had the first fully articulate wooden leg made and would walk eight miles a day on it round his estate at Plas Newydd on Anglesy.
So on holiday we went to visit Lord Anglsey's wooden leg. The gracious House at Pals Newydd is in the care of the National Trust. One of its glories is the dining room, decorated with a superb and enormous tromp l'oeil mural by Rex Whistler (Hi 1919). In an adjoining room there is a small Whistler Museum featuring a number of his sketches, letters and designs for stage sets. There is a page of characatures similar to those he made of Haileybury beaks which you can see in Imogen Thomas's Haileybury 1806 - 1987.
Whistler's time at Prep school is mentioned and his training at the Slade, but not Haileybury.
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