TWO hundred years after they beat Napoleon Bonaparte for the first time, the lads of the Essex Regiment will be back at Waterloo to do it again.

Members of the 44th East Essex Regiment of Foot (2nd Battalion) are on their way to Belgium. All bar two of its battle strength will be making the journey.

“It’s the biggest engagement of our lives since we took the King’s shilling,” says their commander, Col Edwin Parker.

June 18 is the day they have been awaiting for years, the bicentenary of the most famous land battle in European history – a conflict which also gave rise to one of the great battle honours of the Essex Regiment.

The total spectacle will involve 5,000 men, 300 horses and 100 working cannons, making it the biggest amateur reconstruction of amilitary event in modern times.

This time round, the 44th are re-enactors rather than enactors. They will not be shooting any Frenchmen for real, in an official capacity at least. Otherwise, they will be in every respect authentic, almost closer to reincarnations than re-enactors.

In the week before Waterloo, a special compliment was paid to the 44th, and their attention to military detail. They were invited to take part in a drill on Horse Guards Parade, appearing alongside the modern, professional Brigade of Guards at Beating the Retreat.

“We showed them how to do the drill properly, though they’d better not know I said that,”

says Steve Hars, a regular member of the 44th, from Basildon.

The 2nd battalion East Essex was formed in 1803, and had a short but hyperactive life, fighting across Spain in the Peninsula War. It was then violently engaged, with heavy casualties, in the Waterloo campaign. The battalion was disbanded the following year, its work done.

In the year 2000, 184 years later, the call once again went out for volunteers. The battalion was re-mustered, his time as a re-enactment society.

Inspiration came from the success of the Sharpe novels and TV films starring Sean Bean. Sharpe’s creator, Bernard Cornwell, who was brought up in Essex, gave Sharpe’s fictional regiment the title the South Essex.

According to local historian AndrewSummers: “The South Essex’s exploits in the Sharpe stories closely match those of its real-life counterpart, the 2nd Battalion East Essex.”

Although based in Essex and honouring an Essex regiment, the 2nd Battalion attracts members from far and wide.

Only about 50 per cent actually live in the county.

“Leicestershire, Bristol and Norfolk come to mind immediately,” says Steve.

“There are other units which specialise in the Napoleonic Wars, but they tend only to hold a few events a year.

“We are active from spring to autumn, with battles and other events every weekend.”

Edwin “Ed” Parker, the regiment’s colonel, is one of those outsiders. Ed, who works in marketing when not in uniform, lives in Northamptonshire.

“I do a lot of driving to and from Essex,” he says. “But it’s worth it because the East Essex is such a fine unit. It knows how to put on a good display, and is as authentic as it is possible to get.”

This authenticity has its non-pc side. There are no women fighting in the ranks of the 44th. Women do have their part to play in the battalion, but it tends to be inamore traditional role.

“Wives and girlfriends will be there at Waterloo, but as camp followers,” says Col Ed.

One reason for the high regimental standard is the quality of the uniforms.

Col Ed says: “A lot of them, perhaps most, have been made by my wife Angela. She’s the unit seamstress, although as the regiment’s grown in strength, she’s starting to feel that she’s had enough of the job.”

At the 2015 Waterloo event, Ed will be in overall command of 22 separate reenactment regiments, including units from the USA, Canada and Italy.

The event director, Luc Petit, will be in charge of the staged confrontations, which will recreate a series of key events around the Waterloo battlefield. But Ed has a major responsibility for ensuring his men do the right thing at the right time. In reality, he says: “It can be more a matter of offering gentle advice than barking a command.”

Like almost everyone who becomes involved with re-enactment, Ed says that the pastime has become all-engrossing.

“It’s far more than a hobby,” he says. “It takes your life over.

“But I’ve never doubted it’s worth it. You travel, you have an enjoyable time. You learn a lot, and youmake many friends. A lot of those 5,000 people who will be at Waterloo are old friends we’ve met at other events.”

“Yes, that includes the French,” adds Col Ed, as Wellington and Napoleon start to revolve in their graves.

Military precision – members of the 44th East Essex Regiment of Foot (2nd Battalion) re-enactors ýý On the defence – the Battle of Quatre Bras ‘It’s far more than a hobby. It takes your life over.

But I’ve never doubted it’s worth it THE battle of Waterloo almost did not happen. The great 25- year Napoleonic conflict could have been won or lost in a day at the Battle of Quatre Bras, which occurred on June 16 1815, two days before Waterloo.

Quatre Bras was a key crossroads on the Brussels to Namur Road. In a surprise attack (“Napoleon has humbuggedme by God,”

explained Wellington), the French suddenly struck at Quatre Bras.

Napoleon’s strategy was to drive a wedge between the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies, defeat each separately, then march unopposed to take Brussels.

After fierce fighting in and around Gemincourt Farm and Bossu Wood, which was taken and retaken time after time by both sides, Marshall Ney’s French forces were finally able to advance on to Quatre Bras itself.

The crossroads were defended by a mixed force comprising units of the Black Watch, the 9th Brigade, the Gordon Highlanders – and the second battalion of 44th East Essex.

The British units held the positions against onslaughts by infantry and cavalry, although the defenders were decimated – or, as one dispatch put it, “severelymauled” .

Quatre Bras was held, however.

Having failed to take the crossroads by the end of the day, Napoleon changed his strategy.

Instead, he concentrated his attack on the main allied force under Wellington, now positioned at a village whose name would soon echo round the world – Waterloo.

Those soldiers of 44th East Essex who survived Quatre Bras and managed to find their way back to British lines, now found themselves embroiled in an even greater conflict.