Sandhurst Trust Member's Autumn Event
Talk & Reception
Thursday 2nd October 2025

Full details and booking facility to follow

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LOUIS NAPOLEON – THE PRINCE IMPERIAL OF FRANCE
By Richard Anderson
Anyone who has trained at Sandhurst will be familiar with the Prince Imperial Statue on New College square. Louis Napoleon, the son of the Emperor Napoleon III and great nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to Britain along with his father and the Empress Eugenie in 1871 after the defeat of France at the hand of the Prussians. On the death of the emperor in 1873, the teenage Louis became the sole heir to the Bonaparte throne of France. Unable to return to France, he was accepted for training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and attached to the Royal Artillery. In 1879 he was allowed to travel to South Africa where the Zulu War was raging. The talk will cover the life of the young Prince including his time at Woolwich, his brief service in the war and his untimely death when supposedly safeguarded by an escort of British soldiers. The subsequent court martial of the escort commander and the return of the prince’s remains are fascinating, together with the selection of his final resting place in Farnborough Abbey, not five miles from Sandhurst.

Trust member, Richard Anderson is an acknowledged expert on the life of the Prince Imperial.