Battle of Waterloo hero's descendant wants Bedford grave restored

The descendant of a soldier who fought in a key battle against Napoleon want his grave to be restored.

Sgt Matthew Clay died in 1873, aged 78, after retiring to Bedford and is buried in the town's Foster Hill Road Cemetery.

He kept a diary documenting daily life during the war and the Battle of Waterloo, which he fought in.

His great-great-great niece Christine Dabbs said she cried when she last saw the condition of the grave.

He joined the Scots Guards aged 18, in December 1813, and eventually joined the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

Sgt Clay was one of the allied soldiers who successfully held off Napoleon's forces at Hougoumont.

In 1818 he returned home with his battalion and settled into family life.

A letter was published in the Bedford Times on 24 May 1873 asking readers for donations to help Clay, who the writer described as a retired soldier living in poverty.

The letter described Sgt Clay as "a soldier of high character upon whom illness and difficulty have come at last".

The Tavistock Road resident died weeks later on 5 June 1873 after £100 had been raised and received a hero's funeral,

"The people of Bedford loved him and thousands lined the street," said Mrs Dabbs (nee Clay), who lives in Blidworth, the Nottinghamshire village where her ancestor was born.

She said she was sad to see the condition of his grave when visiting in 2019.

"If somebody leant against it it would all go over and the words on the stone need redoing," she said.

"People from all over the world come to his grave. He wrote the best account of Waterloo."

Over the years she has tried to raise the money to restore the grave, even writing to Queen Elizabeth II.

She said she received five letters from the Queen discussing the life of Sgt Clay.

"I told her I was trying to raise money to get the grave done but she said she couldn't help me," she said.

Now Mrs Dabbs, who previously raised money to install a memorial in Blidworth, hopes people may come together to raise money to restore his grave.

"I'm keeping fingers crossed that at last it will get done - it would mean a lot," she said.

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