Charles Freeman Sandham (12 October 1781 – 14 February 1869) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who fought during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and commanded a Brigade of Artillery at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

on 18June 1815.

Biography

After service in Holland in 1799 he was part of the 1807 Copenhagen Expedition. Present at four engagements during the

Walcheren Campaign The Walcheren Campaign ( ) was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chath ...

, he subsequently served under Sir John Moore during the 1809 retreat from Corunna. Sandham campaigned in Holland, Flanders and France during 1814 before commanding a Brigade of the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

at the

on 18June 1815. During the battle, his Brigade were armed with five 9-pounder cannons and one 5 1/2" howitzer. Sources claim that "the first shot fired by the allied artillery at Waterloo was fired by Sandham's brigade." In 1833 he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex. After his death he was buried in the churchyard of St. Marys in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, Sussex.

References

Bibliography

* * 1781 births 1869 deaths British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Royal Artillery officers People from Washington, West Sussex {{British-Army-bio-stub