James Whamond, 1790 - 1839

James Whamond is my husband's three times great grandfather and he fought at the Battle of Waterloo! That's why we applied for the replica medal in his memory. Apparently the medal was not issued until the 1840s by which time he had died. 

He enlisted as an 18 year old in Stirling and joined Wellington's army fighting in the Spanish Peninsula. He fought all the way through that campaign  and back into France where he also fought in the Battle of Toulouse. 

Napoleon's lat stand was at Waterloo and James Whamond was there too as a Corporal in Captain McNair's Company in the 52nd Regiment of Foot. He remained the army and saw further service in Ireland and Canada until he retired in 1830 after 14 years as a sergeant. Below is a picture of the 52nd at Waterloo.

Last Charge of the 52nd Regiment of Foot, Waterloo; print after an original painting by Laslett J. Pott.

All this is remarkable  enough but what I find really exciting is that on all these adventures he found a French wife and had a family which went round the world with him! His first child, John, was born in France before the couple came home and were married in 1819 in Weedon Bec. 

Weedon was an ordnance depot on the Grand Union Canal and was also where the Royal Family would have been evacuated to as a place of safety had Napoleon's Army invaded. 

Their second child was born in Derby, another garrison town, while number three was born in Clonmell in Ireland. Two further children were born in Halifax in Canada and the last four in Kirriemuir in Scotland.

Kirriemuir was a linen weaving town in Angus close to Tannadice where the Whamond family came from. After such a long military career, James came home with French wife and family but sadly died in 1839 leaving Marie Francoise a widow. How a French woman managed to make a like in rural Scotland is a mystery!

But her story does not end there. Her children spread far and wide. This was a difficult time in the linen weaving industry in Kirriemuir and all left to better themelves. Diligent searching in the censuses found Marie in Longforgan in Perthshire in 1861 with eldest son John's family, and in Glasgow in 1871 with her daughter, Janet McCusker. 

Finally she died in 1874 and was buried in Liverpool. By this time her son John had moved to Liverpool, where a number of Whamond's lived. Her final resting place is in Toxteth Park Cemetery on Smithdown Road. Sadly there is no memorial stone to such a remarkable woman.

What a couple, what lives - another reason I love Liverpool.