Charles Ewart Ensign Charles Ewart ( 1769 – 23 May 1846 ) was a Scottish soldier of the Royal North British Dragoons ( more commonly known as the Scots Greys ) , famous for capturing the regimental eagle of the " 45e Régiment de Ligne " ( 45th Regiment of the Line ) at the Battle of Waterloo . He was born near Kilmarnock in 1769 , and enlisted in the cavalry at the age of twenty . He fought in a number of actions in the French Revolutionary Wars , was briefly taken prisoner , and emerged from the conflict as a Sergeant in the regiment . Over the next two decades he became a well - respected and competent soldier , serving as fencing - master of the regiment ; a heavily - built man , reported as 6 ' 4 " tall and " of Herculean strength " he was an expert swordsman and accomplished rider . The engagement . At Waterloo , the Greys were part of the Union Brigade , a formation of heavy cavalry regiments held in reserve by Wellington . In the line of battle , General Thomas Picton ' s 5th Division was held in reserve , on the right of the Allied line , behind the Dutch - Belgian 2nd Division . The 5th contained a number of experienced veteran units from the Peninsular War , including the 92nd Foot ( Gordon Highlanders ) . After a heavy exchange of fire , the Belgians were forced to fall back to the far side of the ridge on which they were stationed , and the 5th Division moved forward over the crest of the ridge to hold the line . After the heavy exchange of fire continued , with the 5th holding firm , it was decided that the division should charge to break up the French columns ; the cavalry held in reserve were brought forward , and passed through the ranks of the infantry and into action . At this point , the Gordon Highlanders were exchanging fire with the 1st Battalion of the 45th , which was deploying around thirty yards to their front . The Greys quickly and unexpectedly passed through the infantry , moved forward the short distance between the lines , and broke through to the centre of the French infantry as it was forming into a defensive line . In the confusion that followed , the 45th was effectively broken as an organised unit , and the eagle it carried was quickly seized by Sergeant Ewart , in close fighting with a number of Frenchmen . To prevent it being recaptured , he was ordered to take it to safety ; he did , but paused for some time overlooking the battlefield before finally carrying the trophy to Brussels . Whilst the brigade had not taken significant losses , they were disorganised , and carried forward to attack French artillery ; charged by French cavalry in turn , they took heavy losses , and played no further part in the battle . The reminiscences of James Paterson . James Paterson was a printer , editor and historian born and throughout his working life , mostly based , in Ayrshire . In 1846 he and several others dined with Charles Ewart at the Monument Inn in Kilmarnock and published the story of this Ayrshire hero in the " Observer . " Charles Ewart was about 6 feet high , firmly knit , with a countenance indicative of high mental and physical energies . In the retreat of the British through Holland after the disastrous Battle of Nimguen , Ewart one day heard the wailing sounds of a child coming from close to the roadside . He dismounted and found a woman and child lying in the snow . The mother was dead , but the infant , still clinging to life , was in the act of suckling from the breast of its lifeless parent . Ewart rescued the baby and on reaching the encampment for the evening , met with his colonel who offered to defray the expenses of a wet nurse . Great difficulties were encountered in this , however he was successful and also fortunate in discovering the father of the child , a sergeant in the 60th regiment . Some years later the father , now a sergeant - major and father of a healthy son , fortuitously met with Ewart . He tried to give Ewart a sum of money , which upon being firmly rejected , was replaced with the gift of a silver watch , and this was finally accepted as a memento of the events . At Waterloo , Ewart was involved in a hand to hand combat with an officer , whom he was about to cut down , when a young ensign of the Greys offered to instead take the Frenchman to the rear as a prisoner . No sooner had he agreed to the request when he heard the report of a pistol and upon turning , saw the ensign falling from his horse , and the officer in the act of replacing the weapon with which he had dispatched the life of his preserver . Thus enraged , Ewart cut down the officer , deaf to his pleadings for mercy . Dashing forward he now found himself close to the standard - bearer of one of the French Invincible regiments . A short and deadly conflict ensued and as the staff had stuck fast in the ground he was able to lay hold of it without further trouble . Looking round he saw a lancer single him out , gallop forward and hurl his spear at his breast . He had just enough strength to ward off the blow , so that the lance only grazed his side ; then raising himself up in his stirrups , he brought his opponent to the ground with one cut of his sword . When riding away with the Eagle he experienced another narrow escape , for a wounded Frenchman , who he had taken for dead , raised himself up on one elbow and fired at him as he passed . The ball fortunately missed him and he was able to take his prize to the rear . In 1816 he was invited to a Waterloo dinner at Leith near Edinburgh , where Sir Walter Scott proposed his health and invited him to speak . Lieutenant Ewart begged that he might be excused , saying that " he would rather fight the battle of Waterloo over again , than face so large an assemblage . " The legend . The capture of the eagle is one of the most prized honours of the Scots Greys and , in commemoration of this , their cap badge shows the eagle . As with many such incidents , the story of the capture has grown greatly over the years , to the status of a legend ; it is often told that the Greys charged the 45th , with the Gordons seizing hold of their stirrup - leathers and carrying themselves along into the fray , crying " Scotland Forever ! " . On the contrary , modern research suggests that there was no charge , but rather a quick walk ( commonly used by large cavalry formations to preserve order when speed of arrival is irrelevant ) into the advancing French line . The rest of the British Army called the Greys " The Birdcatchers " , as a wry nickname for the eagles capture . Throughout the entire Waterloo campaign , only two French Eagles were captured during battle , both by the Union Brigade in this particular action . Ewart was hailed a hero , honoured , and travelled the country giving speeches . He was given a commission as an ensign ( a second lieutenancy ) in the 5th Veteran Battalion in 1816 , and left the army when this unit was disbanded in 1821 . He lived in Salford , and in his final years at Davyhulme , near Manchester , retiring on the full pay of an ensign , and died in 1846 . He was buried in the New Jerusalem Chapel graveyard in Bolton Street , Salford . His memorial read " In Memory of Ensign Charles Ewart , who departed March 23 , 1846 , aged 77 years " . His grave was paved over and forgotten for many years , being uncovered in the 1930s , and he was reburied by the Royal Scots Greys ( as they were then titled ) on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in 1938 . Today , he is best known to the general populace by a pub in Edinburgh which bears his name , the " Ensign Ewart " ; it is located next to the Castle esplanade , where a monument marks his burial place .