Siborne Lecture: The Legacy of Waterloo

Join us for the annual Siborne Lecture at the National Army Museum, in partnership with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), exploring the history and culture of the Napoleonic Wars.

About the event

The 2025 Siborne Lecture will focus on the legacy of the Battle of Waterloo, a legacy that is central to the intellectual partnership between RUSI and the National Army Museum.

Between 1815 and the Duke of Wellington’s death in 1852, the Battle of Waterloo became much more than simply a military victory. While other countries marked the battle and its anniversary, only Britain actively incorporated the victory into their national identity, guaranteeing that it would become a ubiquitous and multi-layered presence in British culture.

Waterloo’s significance to Britain’s national psyche resulted in a different kind of war altogether: one in which civilian and military groups fought over and established their own claims on different aspects of the battle and its remembrance.

RUSI was founded in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and quickly built an impressive museum collection, including the famous model of Waterloo created by William Siborne. Since its establishment in 1960, the National Army Museum has shared RUSI’s mission to connect the public with the UK’s military heritage. It now cares for many objects from the original RUSI collection.

This talk is part of the National Army Museum’s Waterloo Week, marking the 210th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

Additional information

Tickets are free, but advance booking is recommended to secure your place.

About the speaker

Dr Luke Reynolds is an American historian who received his PhD from the Graduate Center, City University of New York and an MPhil in History from the University of Cambridge. Luke’s first book, ‘Who Owned Waterloo? Battle, Memory, and Myth in British History, 1815-1852’, was published in 2022. Based on his dissertation, it examines the afterlife of the battle of Waterloo in the collective memory of Great Britain, exploring the concept of cultural ownership of a military event and locating the victory in Britain’s creation myth. Luke is currently an Assistant Professor in Residence in History at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford Campus.