William Siborne

Born on 15 October 1797 and dying on 9 January 1849, William Siborne was a British officer and military historian whose name is closely linked with the Waterloo campaign. He is most often remembered for studying the battle in exceptional detail and for writing a major history of the campaign.

Siborne’s most distinctive achievement was his large-scale model of the Waterloo battlefield. To build it, he gathered testimony from many participants, especially officers who had fought there, which gave his work a level of detail that made it influential for later historians.

Although some parts of his interpretations have been debated over time, his efforts to collect firsthand accounts made a lasting contribution to the way Waterloo has been remembered and studied. His combination of soldierly experience and historical curiosity still makes him an interesting figure for readers drawn to military history.