Blanket, Major Tyrwhitt Drake, Royal Horse Guards Regiment, 1815 (c)

This is the blanket used by Major Tyrwhitt Drake on the night of 17 June 1815, the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. Despite the fact that the battle was fought in the middle of June, it rained torrentially throughout the night, and almost every soldier who fought at Waterloo was wet, cold, and sleepless. Some lit bonfires, some slept in peasants' cottages, but Major Drake huddled under this horse blanket with his steed to keep warm.

William Tyrwhitt-Drake was commissioned as a Cornet in the Army in 1805. As a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards he campaigned with Wellington in the Spanish peninsular from 1811 to 1813. However Wellington seldom if ever used his cavalry in those campaigns. He was with his regiment at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, and after the charge of the heavy cavalry, he was the senior surviving officer of his regiment. Tyrwhitt-Drake received a battlefield promotion to Major in the Army on 18 June 1815.