WATERLOO, Belgium — Captain Alexander Macnab of the 2nd Battalion, 30th Foot Guards was one of thousands of soldiers killed and unceremoniously buried on the famous battlefield near this small Belgian community. Those few historians who have written about him agree that Macnab's military career was less than distinguished, especially in comparison with the many larger-than-life characters whose names to this day are associated with the Battle of Waterloo.
Yet despite a less-than-illustrious career and an obscure death, Captain Macnab has been accorded the rare tribute of having a marble tablet to his memory affixed to the walls of London's St. Paul's Cathedral. His one claim to fame seems to have been that, as far as can be determined, he was the only Canadian known to have participated in this epic battle that took place about 15 kilometres south of Brussels.
Apparently on the strength of this assertion, his Canadian descendants were successful in having a commemorative plaque placed in what is known as the "Canadian Corner" of the cathedral in 1876. Nearby is a bust of Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Not far away is the crypt of the Duke of Wellington, the victor at Waterloo, as well as a monument to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton.
