Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries

Elizabeth Watkins: Honouring the Last Survivor of Waterloo on Its 200th Anniversary

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FoBLC
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With the 200th anniversary of Waterloo it is time to celebrate the incredible life of Elizabeth Watkins, the last survivor of the battle who died aged 94 and is buried in the Brockley & Ladywell cemeteries.

Elizabeth was only 5 years old when she accompanied her mother to help care for the British wounded in the Waterloo campaign. She was one of many women and children on the battlefield, often related or married to soldiers, who acted as unpaid nurses, cooks, and stretcher-bearers.

You can read more about her in this account by John Luke for the FOBLC.

 

Elizabeth died in 1904, aged 95. Her tombstone describes her as a “Waterloo veteran”