Honest Men & Shady Dealings

Was the Duke of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Waterloo due to military genius on his part? Or with the assistance of long time British agent, Marshal Ney, did he simply bribe one or more French generals to make rather convenient mistakes? And did Ney die at the hands of a French firing squad or was he spirited away to America by his old friend Baron Charles de Rothesay as reward for his services to the British? Research suggests that both these conclusions are very likely.'Nothing is ever quite how it might seem' is my favourite saying and it certainly applied to the lives of my Sussex born ancestors William Wood and his nephew George Fleming back in 19th century Europe, together with a number of their relatives, friends and employers. How many residents of the sleepy little East Sussex village of Maresfield would have thought for one moment that the venerable old proprietor of the local plant nursery, Woodlands, a recognised expert in rose breeding, was once a spy for the Duke of Wellington in his campaigns against Napoleon, not to mention the successful operator of a rather audacious smuggling sideline as well. Similarly, many neighbours of George and Mary Anne Fleming in the West London suburb of Acton, would have been unaware that the retired couple had been intimately involved in the lives of Queen Victoria and her family or that George had been extremely close to Victoria for fifty-five years, far longer than any other man in her life, including her father, husband, children, John Brown, or the 'Munshi' by the time she died. And then there was Edwin Nixon, an upholsterer (stuffer of chairs) from Nottingham, who married into the family and following William's death mysteriously became a very rich man indeed, raising the question that William and he might have been involved in the 'trading' of artefacts plundered during Napoleonic times. William's son Charles, who grew up in the Paris embassy, later rebuffed an attempt by a government official to pay a very large amount of money for his father's life story, confirming that 'sleeping dogs were best left to lie'. I doubt that George Fleming or his children were ever approached to reveal secrets of their lives with the Royals, but he did leave behind a 'diary' which I drew upon in researching and publishing my first book 'George Fleming, Faithful Servant', which I followed up with 'Alonso, The Spy Who Grew Roses'. However, research for the latter revealed even more of Edwin Nixon's close relationships with William and George and this third book became necessary, in which I combine abridged versions of the two previous publications, introducing both fresh information and new characters.