William Carr Beresford was born in Waterford in 1768 and grew up in Curraghmore, before being sent to a military college in France at the age of seventeen. He made his name as a soldier in the wars against France between 1793 and 1814, rising to become a full general in the British army and Marshal and Commander in Chief of the Portuguese armed forces. As such he became the Duke of Wellington’s right-hand man in the Iberian Peninsula in the long struggle against Napoleon.
During his lifetime Marshal Beresford built up an outstanding silver collection. This story concerns the gift of a valuable portion of that silver collection for the specific use of the British Embassy in Poland, a gift made at a time when there was no such embassy and indeed Poland did not exist as an independent country. In this lecture Marcus de la Poer Beresford will address a number of questions:
• What lay behind such an aspirational gift?
• How was the gift used when Poland did achieve independence on the conclusion of World War I?
• Who stole the silver during World War II?
• Where is the silver now?
Research for this talk, and the book to which that research gave rise, would not have been possible without the collaboration with Katarzyna Krenz, a well-known Polish journalist and novelist. It was Katarzyna who obtained access to archives in Warsaw and other locations, dating back into the times of subjugation and oppression in Poland, a period in the twentieth century when Poland had once again lost its liberty and was dominated by dictatorial foreign powers.
Marcus de la Poer Beresford read history at Trinity College Dublin before qualifying as a lawyer. He retired from legal practice in 2010 in order to return to his first love, history. Marcus’s earlier research and postgraduate thesis focused on Ireland in the eighteenth century, and the Irish diaspora in Europe. In recent years he has written and lectured extensively on the Napoleonic Wars, with particular reference to the Iberian Peninsula, and the involvement of Irishmen in those wars.
Marcus has published the results of his research widely. His books include Marshal William Carr Beresford “the ablest man I have yet seen with the army” (Irish Academic Press 2019) a Portuguese edition of which was published in November 2021. Marcus’s biography of Major General Sir Denis Pack Peninsular and Waterloo General -Sir Denis Pack and the War against Napoleon was published by Pen & Sword Books in April 2022 and has been well received in Ireland and abroad. His latest book, co-authored with Kasia Krenz, appeared in English and Polish in December 2023. From Napoleon to the Nazis, the Mysterious Story of Marshal Beresford’s Silver tells the dramatic tale of how this collection of silver came to be in Poland, from whence it was stolen in World War Two, together with its partial recovery. Recent articles include ‘The Peninsular romance of Lieutenant Waldron Kelly and Ana Ludovina de Aguilar’ in The Irish Sword (Vol.32 (2020), No 129), and ‘Marshal William Carr Beresford and the return to Portugal of the Portuguese Royal family, 1814-1830’ in Revista de Estudos Anglo-Portugueses (No 29, 2020).
Marcus is currently working on a history of the early years of the Connaught Rangers (88th regiment), an outstanding Irish regiment in the British army, and a number of other projects. Further information on Marcus’s research and publications can be found on his website www.marcusdelapoerberesford.ie.
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