On Sunday 6 May 1821, after the autopsy which was conducted in the afternoon by the anatomist Dr Antommarchi, Napoleon’s body was dressed in his favourite chasseur colonel uniform and hat and displayed to the public in a make-shift “Chapel of rest” on one of his campbeds in his study at Longwood.
There, John Ward, a young ensign of the 66th Regiment made a detailed drawing of this unusual “lying-in-state”. This copy made and signed by the artist was donated to the Longwood Museum on St Helena by Jean-Paul Mayeux.
Ensign Ward of the 66th joined his regiment in St. Helena towards the end of Napoleon’s captivity. He made both this and a sketch of Napoleon during life and it has been claimed helped Dr Burton when he took the original casts for the death mask. He later transferred to the 91st Regiment, and was present at the exhumation in 1840. He therefore occupies, with Lieutenant G. H. Wood, the position of being one of the two British officers who attended both the funeral in 1821 and the exhumation in 1840. He died, having attained the rank of general, in 1878 (see Arnold Chaplin, A St Helena Who’s Who, 1919). Ward’s “prototype” was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 21 March 2002, lot 149.
On the back of this sketch, the soldier wrote:
“Napoleon after death
The face had a remarkably placid expression and indicated mildness and sweetness of disposition.
Those who gazed on the features, as they lay in the still repose of death – could not help exclaiming “How beautiful”! – The head was so large as to be disproportioned to the rest of the body, and the forehead was very broad and full. The skin was perfectly white and delicate, and the whole frame was slender and effeminate. – On the left leg, near the ankle was a scar which appeared to be occasioned by a wound. have been caused by a wound.
He died on Saturday the 5th May 1821 at 20 minutes past 5 O’Clock (sic – read 5.49pm), just as the sunset gun had fired! –
He was 52 years old (sic – read 51).
Signed : J.W.”
