2020 was a difficult year for Waterloo Uncovered, as it was for people all around the world. Unfortunately, the global pandemic meant the cancellation of our annual excavation in Belgium. As a result, the team had to work hard and think creatively to adapt to the evolving situation, in order to continue providing much needed support to those who had served their country.

As a result, the Virtual Programme was created: an online block of educational content and friendly discussions, embedded within a wider programme of welfare support. Read about our first Virtual Programme, the engaging online lecture series we launched over the summer, how we celebrated the 205th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and much more in our 2020 Impact Report.

2019 was one of Waterloo Uncovered's most successful years to date. Over the summer, 50 British and Dutch veterans and serving personnel took part in our excavation in Belgium, alongside a team of archaeologists led by Professor Tony Pollard, Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow.

Here, the team uncovered more than 800 finds, including items of uniform from British Guardsmen, large numbers of musket and cannon balls from the fierce fighting, and grim evidence of the work of the surgeons in the Allied Field Hospital, in the form of amputated limbs from the struggle to save lives. Evaluation shows that 81% of personal goals set by participants were met "in full, or mostly". In addition, a scale to measure mental wellbeing, developed by the Universities of Warwick and Edinburgh, revealed an average improvement of nearly 30% in the short term, with an improvement of 20% sustained at the end of the nine-month programme.