A GRAVEYARD SURPRISE!

When I first moved down to Dorset, I explored the area enjoying many walks across the countryside and particularly around the coast of the Isle of Purbeck. On one Sunday afternoon the route took me through St. Nicholas’s churchyard at Studland and as I passed a gravestone standing almost as tall as me, I did a double take causing me to stop, go back and photograph the inscription which is still clear.
It tells of the life of a Sergeant William Lawrence detailing not only the dates of his birth and death but also a short summary of his military career; he fought in South America 1805 and throughout the Peninsular War 1805-1813 and was awarded a silver medal with ten clasps for the battles that he had taken part in: Roleia, Vimiera, Talavera, Cuidad Rodrigo, Badajoz (where he had volunteered for the Forlorn Hope and was injured), Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelles, Orthes, Toulouse and finally he was present at Waterloo! (We might correct the spelling, but this is as on the gravestone)
Long before I had thought of writing the adventures for Fin and Thomo, I remarked that if you wrote of such a character, no one would believe that he could have survived so long and through so many battles. Looking further on the gravestone there is an inscription for his wife Clotilde Clairet who he met while stationed in St. Germain-en-Laye after Waterloo.
Surviving so much and coming home with a French wife intrigued me to investigate further and was delighted to find an account of the life of this Dorset Soldier which gave so much more detail about William. I have been back to the graveyard to show others who have a similar interest in Napoleonic history when they have come to stay with my family and when I started writing my adventures I planned in aspects of William’s life and made sure that Fin and Thomo would meet him – half way up a hill at the Battle of Toulouse – and use the unusual story that his wife Clotilde was originally Marie Louise but had to change her name, as did all women in France when Napoleon ordered that only his wife could bear that name!
Who would have thought a country ramble would be an inspiration for one of the adventures I later wrote? It just pays to keep your eyes peeled to pick up little details from who knows where and, as we used to say to the children when writing in Literacy lessons, Magpie the idea to use in your own stories!

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