About Waterloo Uncovered - Waterloo Uncovered

Waterloo Uncovered: Celebrating 10 Years of Recovery through Discovery

In 2025, Waterloo Uncovered is celebrating our 10 year anniversary. We are delighted to share our plans for the future, as we look forward to continuing our programmes in support of veteran and serving military personnel recovery and wellbeing as we make more discoveries about the Battle of Waterloo.

MEET THE TEAM

Meet the people who make Waterloo Uncovered happen, including our Core Team, our Trustees, and our Patron, the Duke of Wellington.

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PATRON

Meet our patron, Arthur Charles Valerian Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington

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TRUSTEES

Meet the Trustees who support and oversee our work.

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CORE TEAM

Meet the staff and core team of Waterloo Uncovered.

OUR STORY

Waterloo Uncovered is the a ground breaking charity that delivers wellbeing support programmes for veterans and serving military personnel centred around archaeology. We are a registered charity in England and Wales and were established in 2015 at the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo.

In a sun-baked field in Belgium, a group of men and women dressed in an assortment of shorts, T-shirts and High-Vis vests are on hands and knees paying close attention to the parched clay soil. The heavy afternoon air is pierced by the scraping of trowels and the urgent beeping of electronic sensors. Nearby, under the close scrutiny of a professional eye, a man is crumbling the soil from a lump he’s teased out from a spot pinpointed by the loop of a metal detector. He raises a heavily tattooed arm (a clue perhaps, to his own military origins) and grins. Between his fingers he holds a rounded lump of lead: definitely a musket ball; probably British; possibly fired by brothers in arms from his own regiment, two hundred years earlier. A minor archaeological discovery perhaps, but in that moment, he’s made an important connection with history and, in some small way, found a way to put the troubling experiences of his own past into a more positive perspective. This is Waterloo Uncovered, at work on the battlefield of Waterloo.

The Battle of Waterloo is situated on the edge of Modern History: few other battles were recorded in such detail by those eyewitnesses who survived, in letters, journals, memoirs and monologues; few battles have adorned bookshelves with such histories and reinterpretations, which continue to be produced to this day.

What new things remain to be said, therefore? What discoveries are still to be made?

Waterloo Uncovered has been addressing this challenge since 2015. Originally a project in archaeological excavation, we continue our archaeological digs but our programmes today reach far beyond the battlefield and are centred around the objects uncovered at Waterloo. The experiences of contemporary servicemen and women converge to forge compelling new insights into this most iconic of battlefields.

Waterloo Uncovered combines world-leading archaeology with the recovery and wellbeing of veterans and serving military personnel (VSMP) as we bring together this community to connect conflicts past with conflicts present.

Our origins

The project was originally conceived by Mark Evans and Charlie Foinette, our Founders, and their shared experience. Both had studied archaeology together and both subsequently served as officers in the Coldstream Guards – a regimental connection that was to prove key in opening up this closely protected battlefield to archaeological exploration. Upon leaving the Army, Mark (right) was encouraged to revisit archaeology as a means of working through the mental legacy of his own experiences in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Charlie (left), still serving with the battalion, took his men on a tour of Hougoumont Farm on the battlefield of Waterloo. Hougoumont is “sacred ground” to the regiment and is one of the Coldstream Guards’ proudest battle honours.

Mark and Charlie discovered that little archaeological exploration had taken place on the battlefield, and that being part of a team working on an archaeological dig has the potential to help people with their recovery and rehabilitation. With the generous collaboration of our international partners, the first Waterloo Uncovered archaeological dig took place in 2015. Since then our beneficiaries have made important discoveries about themselves and the battle.

An International Project

Committed from the start to achieving the highest standards in both archaeology and wellbeing support, partnerships are at the heart of Waterloo Uncovered. World-leading archaeological expertise is provided by The Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, led by Professor Tony Pollard, and by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). Local expertise has been key: the Belgian regional archaeological service, Agence Wallonne du Patrimoine (AWAP) has been involved from the start, facilitating access and adding their own knowledge of the site, as has the University of Ghent, whose expertise in techniques of scanning and visualising the landscape have become increasingly important as the dig has extended to new areas of the battlefield. The University of Utrecht and Utrecht Summer Schools, in the Netherlands, allows the educational potential of Waterloo Uncovered, through the summer schools, enabling students to work alongside archaeologists and veterans.

Working in an international environment is an important aspect for Waterloo Uncovered. We are delighted to welcome international beneficiaries onto our archaeological dig and are grateful for support from other nations and organisations. We also encourage international beneficiaries to join us on other programmes where possible.

Our Volunteers

Our volunteers are absolutely key in supporting our programmes and our charity. We are grateful to all of the individuals who support us both in the UK and from around the world. Professional archaeologists supervise the teams working on different aspects of the dig (one face familiar from TV is that of Phil Harding, archaeologist and veteran of Time Team); experienced metal detectorists train veterans to work alongside the archaeologists; other volunteers provide support with logistics, transport, or communications. Photographers lend their expertise to help create complementary activities to keep beneficiaries engaged and able to try new experiences. Subject Matter Experts deliver content on our programmes, from re-enactors to academic professionals delivering lectures. We are lucky to benefit from expertise in a range of backgrounds and disciplines.