The Duke of Wellington's hearing aid, at the cutting edge of technology 200 years ago
John Goodall meets the 9th Duke of Wellington to hear the tale of his famous forbear's hearing problems.
The 9th Duke of Wellington holds a walking stick ingeniously adapted as a hearing aid. He is standing in the Waterloo Gallery at Apsley House. In August 1822, when Master-General of the Ordnance, the 1st Duke — Arthur Wellesley himself — gave the order to fire a howitzer on an experimental carriage.
The blast ruptured his left ear drum and the immediate treatment almost killed him. For the remainder of his life, the hero of the Battle of Waterloo was deaf in his left ear and suffered from gradually deteriorating hearing loss in his right.
An enthusiast for technology, he used hearing aids to help deal with the problem and this example is one of seven such devices that survive in the family’s collection today. It is practical and plain, a metal walking stick adapted to incorporate a small ivory earpiece and trumpet for the right ear. It was probably the work of an instrument-maker on the Strand.
Shortly before his death in 1852, the Duke wrote to his friend, Lady Salisbury: ‘I have none of the infirmities of old age! excepting Vanity perhaps! But that is a disease of the mind, not of the body! My deafness is accidental!
'If I was not deaf, I really believe that there is not a youth in London who could enjoy the world more than myself or could bear fatigue better, but being deaf, the spirit, not the body, tires. One gets bored, in boring others, and one becomes too happy to get home.’
It’s a poignant admission for a figure familiar today in his heroic character as the ‘Iron Duke’ and the victor of Waterloo.
Find out more at the Wellington Collection website.
Aspley House, London, houses the Waterloo Gallery.
This feature originally appeared in the print edition of Country Life on May 6, 2026. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
