Battle of Waterloo dead may have been used to make white sugar

The mystery of what happened to the bodies of more than 20,000 men who were killed at the Battle of Waterloo has dogged historians for decades. 

Despite the passing of more than 200 years since the Duke of Wellington’s triumph over Napoleon’s forces in 1815, only two skeletons of fallen men have been found, with the most recent discovery coming last month. 

But now, bombshell new research suggests the remains of men and tens of thousands of horses are missing because they were ground down and used to filter brown sugar beet into refined white sugar. 

The gruesome practice likely took place at other Napoleonic battle sites, with sugar factories existing close by. 

The factory at Waterloo, in Belgium, was just three miles from the sites of mass graves from which the bones of fallen men and animals may have been taken. 

The new research, which has been shared exclusively with MailOnline in the UK, was carried out by respected historians Dr Bernard Wilkin and Robin Schäfer, along with archaeologist Professor Tony Pollard, from the University of Glasgow.

The team discovered dozens of contemporary written accounts in Belgian, German and French archives that suggested the bones were plundered from 1834 onwards and used for the burgeoning sugar industry in Belgium. 

Some of this sugar could also have ended up in Britain, for use in the production of sweet treats or to sweeten tea and coffee. 

One written account, in the German newspaper Prager Tagblatt in 1879, noted that using honey to sweeten food avoided the risk of ‘having your great-grandfather’s atoms dissolved in your coffee one fine morning’. 

Another, written by a French traveller who had visited Waterloo in the 1830s, complained how the ‘greatest memory of modern history’ had been ‘mutilated… for sugar’. 

A third reveals how the mayor of Braine-l’Alleud – the area where the Waterloo battle site was located – issued a decree in 1834 slamming ‘excavations’ to dig up bones of Waterloo dead. 

Dr. Wilkin said of the research: ‘It is without any doubt, the most exciting discovery on the battle of Waterloo in recent times.’

Professor Pollard said the work is a ‘game changer’, adding that the local sugar industry had a ‘profound’ impact on the landscape and graves at Waterloo. 

The research also builds on previous work by Professor Pollard showing that some of the bones of the Waterloo dead were ground down and used to make valuable phosphate fertiliser. 

As many as 20,000 men were killed on June 18, 1815, when an allied army under the command of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington met forces being directed by Emperor Napoleon on the battlefield at Waterloo.

Napoleon, fresh out of exile off the coast of Italy after defeat to a coalition of his European neighbours the year previously, was once again trying to establish a French empire on the continent.

Outnumbered by his opponents, he was trying to divide and conquer: First by engaging and defeating the Prussian army led by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher at the Battle of Ligny on June 16.

Blücher suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat, before Napoleon turned his attention to armies under the command of Wellington which had withdrawn to Waterloo.

June 18 dawned calm as Napoleon waited for the muddy battlefield to dry out before attacking – a tactical mistake as, unbeknownst to him, the Prussians were regrouping close by and only needed Wellington’s men to hold up the French for long enough for them to rejoin the fight.

Wellington withstood multiple attacks by the French against defensive positions at Mont-Saint-Jean that afternoon before the Prussians were able to arrive in sufficient numbers to inflict heavy casualties.

A last-ditch attack on allied positions with the Imperial Guard that evening failed and ended with the route of Napoleon’s army, the capture of the Imperial Coach, and the end of the French dictator’s wars in Europe.

The men and horses that were killed in the battle are believed to have been piled into mass graves, but these have never been discovered. 

Dr Wilkin’s research uncovered documents and publications in the Belgian state archives and other stores of documents, most of which are closed off to most researchers.

The trade in bones took off in Belgium in 1834, after a new law had liberalised the practice.

Figures taken from Belgian parliamentary debates show how whilst no bones were exported from Belgium to France between 1832 and 1833, the trade exploded from 1834, when there were 350,000kg sent. 

More than two decades earlier, French entrepreneur Charles Derosne found that ground down and heated bone – known as bone char – was a more effective filter of sugar beet than charcoal. 

The discovery prompted a huge demand that was fueled in part by the set-up in Belgium. 

When the sugar industry was established in the Waterloo region in 1834, sugar beet overtook other crops that had previously been dominant. 

The phenomenon was recounted by a traveller in a French newspaper, who noted that beets were growing ‘where the great secular trees once stood, under which the nations clashed to make the destiny of a great man!’

They added: Man has to eat, and in his insatiable need he would plough to Calvary. But for sugar! To have mutilated the greatest memory of modern history for sugar!

‘He who has fought by the beet will perish by the beet. This is the fruit of your continental blockade, O great Napoleon.’

As well as the cultivation of beets, a huge sugar production factory was built in Waterloo, just three miles from the battlefield. 

Another factory was set up west of Waterloo. Nearby there were factories for making bone charcoal. 

To make refined sugar, beets were cut into shreds before being cooked and pressed until their juice came out. The juice was then filtered through bone charcoal. 

An 1835 article from French newspaper L’Independent that was found by Dr Wilkin’s team recorded how industrialists had been given permission to ‘excavate the battlefield of Waterloo, in order to remove the bones of the dead, which are piled up there in such large numbers, and to make bone char.’

Another title, La Presse, said: ‘One experiences the feeling of disgust and shame with which the peasants of Waterloo blush, when they see speculators who sell noble bones scattered on the battlefield, and which they intend to transform into bone char.’

A third, the Echo du Commerce, said that the convoys were ‘heading for the animal coal factories, whose products are necessary for our beet sugar factories.’ 

The researchers found further evidence in Belgium’s national archives. One report concerned the illegal digging of battlefields, whilst others revealed illicit excavations of mass graves. 

The mayor of Braine-I’Alleud said in his decree: ‘Excavations to dig up bones in the battlefield of 1815 having been carried out, the undersigned has been enjoined to inform the inhabitants of his commune and neighbouring communes that these acts are one of those contained in article 360 of the penal code and punishable by imprisonment for three months to one year and a fine of 10 francs to 200 francs.

‘Consequently, the owners and cultivators of the land situated in the battlefield must not violate or allow the violation of the burials made on their property and the administrative authorities and the judicial police officers are invited to watch for offences of this kind which could still be committed in the future.’

Accounts from foreign witnesses provide further evidence as to what was going on.

One, Dr Karl von Leonhard, a renowned German geologist, visited the battlefield in 1840.

He noted how he encountered open pits with several people working in them.

He saw ‘deep trenches stretched far out, filled with corpses of humans and animals (…) From time to time, the graves had been dug up; Brussels merchants had been trading in ‘Waterloo bones’ for some time.

‘The natives, however, only admitted to selling the bones of horses to the speculators. One of the workers, wielding his shovel however, praised the bones of the Guard Grenadiers as particularly worthy of a prize as; according to his assurance, they weighed as much as those of horses.’

Another account, written by a French citizen and published in a respected French journal in 1858, noted that: ‘I do not forget to have seen the same excavations carried out at Waterloo, where I had the misfortune to lose a brother. 

‘And the bones, transformed into animal black, went to clarify the beet sugar of Belgium and the northern departments.’ 

The account in Prager Tagblatt said: ‘Seen in the light of day, sweetening food with honey seems much more poetic than with sugar, for the clarification of which, as everyone knows, bone is used. 

‘With honey, you don’t risk having your great-grandfather’s atoms dissolved in your coffee one fine morning, which is possible with sugar, after all.’ 

The exploitation of the Waterloo battle site and similar ones would have come to an end when the large bone deposits were gone. The sugar factory at Waterloo closed in 1860.   

The team also laid out further evidence suggesting that some of the bones were collected and turned into fertiliser. They said there was ‘no doubt’ that human bone was used to make fertiliser. 

One 1822 article, from The Times, quoted an individual using the alias ‘a living soldier’, who claimed that bones had been imported from Waterloo and other Napoleonic battle sites, including from Leipzig and Austerlitz. 

They wrote: ‘lt is estimated that more than a million of bushels of human and inhuman bones were imported last year, from the continent of Europe, into the port of Hull.’

The ‘soldier’ then added: ‘Thus collected from every quarter, they have been shipped to the port of Hull, and thence forwarded to the Yorkshire bone-grinders, who have erected steam-engines and powerful machinery, for the purpose of reducing them to a granulary state. 

‘In this condition they are sent chiefly to Doncaster, one of the largest agricultural markets in that part of the country, and are there sold to the farmers to manure their lands.’ 

Professor Pollard added: ‘Our understanding of the processes which impacted on the survival of graves on Napoleonic battlefields has been dramatically enhanced by this new research. 

‘At Waterloo, the discovery of a pit containing horse skeletons and human remains recently grabbed headlines, but as yet this is the only evidence for burial on the battlefield to come out of the intensive investigations carried out since 2015 by the veteran’s charity Waterloo Uncovered. 

‘Removal of bones for use as fertilizer back in the Britain over the years following the 1815 battle has been suggested as probable cause for a lack this lack of evidence, but the research into sugar beet is a game changer. 

‘This new crop took up land on which the battle was fought and its processing involved the bones of those killed in it. 

‘These findings throw more light on the fertilizer issue and also clearly demonstrate that it was the local sugar industry which had a much more profound impact on the landscape and the graves within it.’ 

The study written by Dr Wilkin, Professor Pollard and Mr Schäfer is due to be published in expanded form in an academic journal later this year.   

The new research comes after the discovery in July of extremely rare remains of a man and horses killed during the Battle of Waterloo.

The man is believed to have been a soldier under the command of the Duke of Wellington. The horses were used my mounted soldiers and to pull cannons and ammunition. 

The discovery was made by members of Waterloo Uncovered – a project to support military veterans and current servicemen who are struggling due to experiences in the armed forces through field work.

The researchers were led by Professor Pollard.  

Created in 2015, Waterloo Uncovered takes a team to Belgium for two weeks each year to excavate sections of the battlefield including the field hospital and Plancenoit village, where some of the bloodiest fighting took place.