Wellington: A Journey Through My Family

By: Jane Wellesley

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Synopsis: Jane Wellesley is privileged to be a part of the Wellington legacy. Her father, the eighth Duke of Wellington, was born in 1915; a hundred years after the first Duke's great victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. The Wellington legacy ranges from the triumphant to the trivial, and the Duke of Wellington remains the most celebrated of all British generals. When he died, Queen Victoria wept with the nation, mourning the loss of 'the greatest man England has known.' A million and a half people swarmed London streets to watch his cortege pass on its way to St Paul's. Few facts can be added about the public man. But Jane isn't an historian: this memoir is intended to see him as husband and father, as brother and several degrees of grandfather. It is a highly personal account; selective and anecdotal. Informed by a female sensibility, it weaves together characters and places, establishes connections, and explores 'footnotes' such as the Wellington women. Jane visits the battlefield of Waterloo with her father to set this tale in motion - her father features heavily alongside the great first Duke, and Dukes 2 through 7 are encompassed to complete an amazing portrait. This is a sparkling journey of enlightenment; a family tree exposition that puts historic analysis firmly in the shade.