Duke of Wellington at Waterloo 1815

Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, was commander of some 13,000 Allied cavalry. Towards the end of the battle, as the Allies began to drive home a counter-attack to turn the French retreat from Mount St Jean into a rout, he was struck on the right leg by a cannon shot as he rode alongside Wellington. The wound was so severe that the leg had to be amputated, and the saw used for the operation, carried out without anaesthetic, is still held in the collections of the National Army Museum.

Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton, commander of the 5th Division, fought the battle in civilian clothes and a top hat, since due to the speed of Napoleon's advance his uniform had not arrived from Brussels. The 5th, a mixture of British and Hanoverian troops, held the left wing of the Allied line, where Picton was killed as he led a counter-attack against Marshal d'Erlon's I Corps in the first French infantry attack.