author
Lady Magdalene De Lancey
1793–1822
Best known for a moving firsthand account of Waterloo, she turned personal tragedy into one of the most vivid memoirs to come out of the Napoleonic era. Her writing is intimate, clear, and unforgettable because it was lived rather than imagined.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born Magdalene Hall in Scotland on March 22, 1793, she became Lady De Lancey after marrying Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey in 1815. Only a few months later, she was caught up in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, where her husband was gravely wounded.
She is remembered for A Week at Waterloo, a deeply personal narrative describing the days in which she cared for him after the battle. Rather than offering military history from a distance, the memoir shows war through shock, exhaustion, grief, and devotion, which is why it has lasted as such a powerful eyewitness account.
After Sir William's death, she later remarried, but her life was short: she died in 1822 at the age of 29. Though she left behind only a small body of writing, her Waterloo memoir secured her place as a distinctive voice of the period.