Grandfather Fought At Battle Of Waterloo

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30783, 22 June 1965, Page 8

Grandfather Fought At Battle Of Waterloo

“The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, June 21. An Auckland brother and sister think they may be the only persons in New Zealand whose grandfather fought at Waterloo.

The paternal grandfather of 84-year-old Mrs E. W. Alison, of Epsom, and Mr E. L. Reed, of St. Heliers, took part in the battle as a driver in the Royal Horse Artillery. Mr Reed possesses documents showing that his grandfather, Adam Reed, enlisted with the artillery in 1813 when only 16. The Waterloo Medal was awarded to Adam Reed after the taking of Cambrai. Although the medal has been lost, Mr E. L. Reed has testimonials, the Army account book, the discharge paper, and other records which belonged to his grandfather.

For a short time after Waterloo, Adam Reed was out of the Army but in April, 1819, he enlisted in the 48th Royal Foot Regiment and in 1834 he joined the 55th Foot. Besides being at Waterloo, he served in Australia and India.

He did not marry until 1848, when ht was in his fifties. His wife died in childbirth. The child, a son, lived. After being discharged from the Army because of ill-health Adam Reed became a Chelsea pensioner. He died in 1875, aged 79. His son became a master mariner, Captain W. J. Reed, who, after many years at sea, mostly taking refrigerated meat from New Zealand to England, settled in Auckland.

He died in the mid-1980s at the age of 83. Two of his children—he had three, but one son died many years ago—still survive him. They are Mrs Alison and Mr E. L. Reed.