CAPTAIN WILLIAM SIBORNE became an ensign in the 9th Foot in 1813 and was sent to France in 1815 as part of a battalion to reinforce Wellington's army. A first-class topographer, he also believed the use of models of battles important from an educational viewpoint. He completed two mhodels of the battle of Waterloo in the 1840s, at which time he was also writing his History of the Waterloo Campaign, still considered a classic work on the subject.

Captain Siborne's second son Herbert collected this valuable archive into volume form, now recognised as a classic contribution to the study of the Napoleonic Wars.