Update
Show Summary Details

Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD REFERENCE (www.oxfordreference.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 17 March 2025

Waterloo 1815 

  1. La Garde meurt, mais ne se rend pas.
    The Guards die but do not surrender.
    attributed to Cambronne when called upon to surrender at Waterloo, 1815, but later denied by him
    Pierre, Baron de Cambronne 1770–1842 French general: H. Houssaye La Garde meurt et ne se rend pas (1907); an alternative version is that he replied, ‘Merde! [Shit!]’, known in French as the ‘mot de Cambronne
  2. Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.
    George Orwell 1903–50 English novelist: The Lion and the Unicorn (1941) pt. 1 ‘England Your England’; see Wellington
  3. Up Guards and at them!
    Duke of Wellington 1769–1852 British soldier and statesman: letter from an officer in the Guards, 22 June 1815, in The Battle of Waterloo by a Near Observer [J. Booth] (1815); later denied by Wellington
  4. Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.
    at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815
    Duke of Wellington 1769–1852 British soldier and statesman: Sir Walter Scott Paul's Letters (1816) Letter 8
  5. The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.
    Duke of Wellington 1769–1852 British soldier and statesman: oral tradition, but probably apocryphal; the earliest reference is a remark said to have been made when revisiting Eton; see Orwell