Henry Gerrard

Henry Gerrard (1799/1800-1897) was Brunant's last surviving veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, having fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

Biography
Gerrard was born in Cape Cross. He supposedly had six other brothers.

Gerrard enlisted in the Royal Guard in early 1815, claiming he was 16 but more than likely born in 1800. He was a drummer at Waterloo, and in the subsequent battles a rifleman. He was discharged from the army in 1815 and received the 1814 War Medal along with other soldiers in the 1815 campaign sometime in the fall of 1815. Like most veterans of the war, he would be afforded a small pension until the 1820s and then largely forgotten by the government.

Gerrard married in 1818 and had daughters.

In 1881 the Liberal Revolution saw a change of King, and the monarchy itself threatened by armed revolutionaries in Koningstad. In light of this the government asked for volunteers in the city; Gerrard famously donned his 1815 soldiers uniform, his 1814 War Medal and 70 year old musket and signed up for service. Then 81 or 82 years old, he was not denied but simply made a commander of several riflemen and in the process promoted from plain soldier to sergeant.

After the crisis ended he was awarded the Medal for Operations with Koningstad clasp and the Order of Merit, personally by Prince Eugen. In 1887 he surpassed Johannes Kemp as Brunant's oldest veteran of the war (Kemp having fought in the 1814 and 1815 campaigns as a Lieutenant). Juan Martell (d. 1892) was a former militaryman who claimed to have fought in 1814 but no conclusive proof was presented.

He died on 14 November 1897 and the government extraordinarily awarded him the War Cross; despite not having served the needed time (completed less than 6 months between service in 1815 and 1881), his years and distinction were considered.