Scottish heroism at Waterloo should not be forgotten

Waterloo did much to create the British patriotism that is now disintegrating. Lady Butler’s epic painting showing the charge of the Scots Greys reminds us this was a battle fought – and won – together

They are charging straight at you, their horses like cannonballs hurtling forward, the men a gallery of courage, sabres aloft, red coats flaming as they advance in reckless unison.

This is a painting of the charge of the Scots Greys at the Battle of Waterloo 200 years ago, and one of the defining images of that bloody day. What we are seeing is a tragic folly, for the dashing cavalry charge so vividly represented here carried on straight through an array of French cannon and left the Greys isolated from their own lines. Their horses exhausted, they were cut down by Napoleon’s 6th and 9th cuirassiers.

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