Did your ancestor fight Napoleon at Waterloo?

This summer marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo when the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars, which had begun in 1803.

The two armies met at Waterloo, in what is now Belgium, in a face-to-face conflict, the outcome of which was to shape the continent into the Europe we know today.

The defeat of Napoleon’s forces – on June 18, 2015 - ushered in the Pax Brittanica – a period of peace in Europe which lasted 100 years until the outbreak of World War One.

Ahead of the bi-centennial of the battle, the search is on to find the descendents of men who fought.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are believed to have had ancestors at Waterloo, and experts believe many are totally unaware of their ancestors’ involvement in the battle.

An unprecedented search is now underway to find them

The group set up to oversee the anniversary, Waterloo 200, said such research had never before been attempted and some 350 people had already come forward to register details of their ancestors who had who fought on one of the bloodiest battlefields then known.

The 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers, the King’s Dragoon Guards and 69th Foot were all prominent on the battlefield and contained the largest contingents of Welsh soldiers.

Anyone who can show their family connection to a soldier who took part will be given the opportunity to apply for tickets to a commemoration service at St Paul's Cathedral on the 200th anniversary.

For more information, visit the waterloo200.org website.

Neath AM Gwenda Thomas said: ‘It would be of great interest to find out how many of my constituents had ancestors who fought in the battle of Waterloo.

“If any people had descendants who fought there, there is much of interest at the waterloo200.org website; here they can submit details of their ancestors, and apply for tickets for the commemoration service at St Paul’s Cathedral.”