Skull of soldier killed at Waterloo kept as a ‘friend’

The skull of a Battle of Waterloo soldier has been found by researchers after an elderly woman kept it on her mantlepiece for years - talking to it and coming to think of it as a "friend".

The remains of ten soldiers, part of the largest collection of Waterloo casualties discovered to date, were found in private homes in Belgium.

The skull had been given to the woman by a neighbour, a former local official who had stored the remains of four Prussian soldiers in his attic after workmen found them during construction work in the village of Plancenoit in 1982.

The woman reluctantly handed over the skull for examination but is said to want it returned once that process is complete.

The remains of six British skeletons were also retrieved from the home of a metal detectorist, having been found during illegal digs on the battle site. They are to undergo further examination at the Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

Just two skeletons from the battle had previously been discovered by archaeologists, the latest in 2022.

The discovery was made by a Belgian-German team behind earlier research that revealed the bones of thousands of men and horses killed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 may have been ground down and used to filter sugar by the emerging European sugar industry.

“While presenting our research to a museum we were approached by a local history student who asked whether we knew of the old man who had two dead Prussians in his attic,” German historian Rob Schafer told The Telegraph.

“As it turned out the remains of four skeletons had been in his attic for more than 40 years.”

The Prussian soldiers - killed in the battle for the possession of the village of Plancenoit, less than 1,000 yards from the inn of La Belle Alliance, Emperor Napoleon’s headquarters at the Battle of Waterloo - are now in the possession of the Belgian State Archives in Liege.

“The findings offer all kinds of potential for forensic and anthropological research,” said Schafer.

Dan Snow, a British historian, told The Telegraph: “This is one of the greatest battles of European History which decided the fate of Europe and of the world. Before this we haven't made contact with the fate of men who died there.

“If you had one moment from British military history of which you would want to find British remains, this is it. Nothing else comes close.”