2015 marks 200 years since the first Wellington Boot was designed by the Duke of Wellington in 1815. The Duke of Wellington was one of the UK's greatest war heroes.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte, (born 1769 - died 1821), was a military French leader. He was Emperor of the French from 1804 - 1815 and key antagonist in the history of the welly.
Peninsular War
Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807. Soon after this, he invaded Spain, taking control of the Iberian Peninsula. Austria threatened to invade France and Napoleon returned leaving his best troops in Spain and Portugal. Meanwhile, British forces under the leadership of the Duke of Wellington fought the French off the Peninsula. In his memoirs, Napoleon described the Peninsular War as central to his defeat.
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium. The French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by the armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington.
Victory for Duke of Wellington
After his victory over Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington served as prime minister of Great Britain between 1828 and 1830 and, briefly, in 1834. The Duke of Wellington is often attributed with the invention of the Wellington boot.
The Duke of Wellington - who's civilian name was Arthur Wellesley commissioned a local shoe-maker in London to design a new boot to be worn in battle by the British troops fighting Napoleon. The new boot was fabricated in soft calfskin leather, not rubber as this had not been invented yet. The design was based on the popular boot design of the time - the Hessian Boot. The main changes in the design of boot had the trim and tassels removed and fitted more closely around the leg.
From Leather to Rubber
The transition from leather to rubber occurred in 1852 when Hiram Hutchinson was granted manufacturing rights by Charles Goodyear to create Wellington Boots in rubber using Goodyear's vulcanisation process. Hutchinson formed the Aigle company in France to manufacture the first rubber wellies.
Apsley House
Apsley House Museum presents the Wellington Collection. This is highly recommended for schools and families. Apsley House is a grade 1 listed building located in the south-east corner of Hyde Park in central London.
If you have some spare time then we highly recommend a visit to Apsley House located at 149 Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner, London - W1J 7NT. Here you will find rare collectable antiques from the Waterloo battles and historic photos and items, including Wellington's boots - a must see!
Full List of Events
Here is a list of Wellington Boot historical events:
| When | Description |
|---|---|
| 1700's - 1800's | Hessian boot, initially used by the military, and adopted as men's fashion. The Hessian boot will later evolve into the rubber work boots known as "wellies" and the cowboy boot. |
| 1736 | Charles Marie de La Condamine brings samples of rubber to the Académie Royale des Sciences of France |
| 1751 | First scientific paper on rubber presented by François Fresneau to the Académie Royale des Sciences of France. He is the first person to propose wearing rubber as a waterproof material. |
| 1756 - 1763 | Seven Years' War |
| 1 May 1769 | Arthur Wesley born in Ireland |
| 15 August 1769 | Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815, was born in Corsica |
| 1775 - 1783 | American War of Independence |
| 4th July 1776 | Independence Day in the United States. English armies return to England. |
| 1787 | Arthur Wesley joins the Army |
| 1789 - 1799 | French Revolution |
| 1793 | Arthur Wesley becomes Major in the 33rd Regiment in charge of a Battalion. |
| 1796 | Richard Wesley (Arthur's brother) becomes Governor-General of India |
| 1798 | Wesley family changes surname to Wellesley |
| 1803 - 1815 | Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815) Peninsular War (1807 - 1814) - guerilla wars in Iberian peninsula against Napoleonic forces led by Arthur Wellesley |
| 1805 | Arthur Wellesley knighted by the King George III |
| 11 May 1814 | Title of 1st Duke of Wellington created and bestowed upon Arthur Wellesley |
| Sunday 18 June 1815 | Battle of Waterloo; Emperor Napoleon was defeated by an Anglo-Allied army led by the Duke of Wellington |
| 1815 | The Duke of Wellington instructs his shoemaker, Hoby of St. James's Street, London, to modify the 18th-century soldier's Hessian boot to create the "Wellington Boot" style. Hard wearing in battle yet comfortable and elegant in the drawing room. |
| 1817 |
Wellington Boot first appears. See the original pair of Wellington Boots at Apsley House. |
| 1817 | Foundation laid for Wellington Monument, Somerset. Completed in 1854. |
| 1817 - 1850 | Wellington Boot fashionable amongst the British aristocracy |
| 5 May 1821 | Napoleon Bonaparte dies |
| 1821 | First raincoat made by G Fox of London. The raincoat was made of Gambroon - a fabric made with mohair. |
| 18 June 1822 | Wellington Monument, London, Hyde Park |
| 1823 | Charles Macintosh patents "Macintosh Coat" - a rubberised waterproof raincoat. Early models of the raincoat included a "brush on rubber" called rubber-naphtha. Early adopters of these raincoats were the military. |
| 1827 | Johann Nepomuk Reithoffer makes his first impermeable rubber boots. He starts Europe's oldest rubber factory. |
| 1828 - 1830 | Arthur Wellesley becomes prime minister of England |
| 1839 | Goodyear claims discovery of vulcanization by the addition of sulphur to rubber. This invention will allow rubber products including rubber rain boots to last longer. "Vulcanised Rubber" was a rubber material that was less affected by changes in temperature. |
| 1840 | Wellington, Cape Town, South Africa founded. Named in honour of the Duke of Wellington. |
| 21 Nov 1843 | Thomas Hancock (1786-1865), a scientist and engineer, patents the vulcanisation process in the UK |
| 15 June 1844 | Goodyear patents vulcanisation process in the USA. |
| 1840 - 1860 | Wellington Boot is the main fashion boot for men. The Wellington boot was popular with cowboys in the USA until the 1860's. |
| 1850 - 1880 | The Full Wellington Boot becomes standard issue to military officers in the USA. |
| 1850 | Hiram Hutchinson meets Charles Goodyear to discuss patent rights for the Vulcanisation process Goodyear has invented. |
| 1850 - 1860 | Cowboy boots (topstitching, cutouts of geometric or other natural elements and underslung heel) replaces The Wellington boot as fashion boot for men in the USA. |
| 1851 | Alexander Parkes invents man-made plastic called Parkesine. Parkesine could be heated, moulded, and retain its shape when cooled. |
| 1852 | Hiram Hutchinson buys vulcanisation of rubber patent from Charles Goodyear |
| 14 September 1852 | Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington dies at Walmer Castle aged 83 |
| 1853 - 1856 | Crimean War |
| 1853 | Hiram Hutchinson starts L'Aigle in France and starts manufacturing rubber boots for farming activities in Europe. |
| 1854 | Wellington Monument in Somerset, Completed |
| 1856 | Two Frenchmen Albert and Louis Cohen set up a rubber factory in Harburg, near Hamburg. They hired 280 workers who started manufacturing rubber boots and rubberised fabrics 24 hours a day. The company is called Gummiwarenfabrik Albert & Louis Cohen, later to become Phoenix AG. |
| September 1856 | Henry Lee Norris starts North British Rubber Company in Scotland (later to be known as Hunter Boot Ltd, makers of Hunter Wellington Boots) |
| 1861 - 1865 | American Civil War |
| 1864 | The Phoenix boot brand is introduced by Phoenix AG. |
| 1865 | Wellington becomes the capital city of New Zealand. Wellington named in honour of The Duke of Wellington. |
| 1868 | American inventor John Wesley Hyatt developed the first industrial plastic material he named Celluloid. Plastics will become important in the manufacture of low-cost boots in future years. |
| 1869 | Charles Goodyear, Jr. the son of Charles Goodyear invents the "welt" - lengthening the life of a high-quality shoe to 20 years. The welt prevents water seeping into the boot or shoe. Future Wellington Boots will incorporate this feature. |
| 1872 | Polyvinyl chloride or PVC was first created by the German chemist Eugen Baumann. PVC or Vinyl (a type of plastic) becomes a popular material for low-cost rain boots. |
| 1872 | In Germany, J.N. Reithoffer merge with Albert and Louis Cohen to form the successful company 'Vereinigte Gummiwaaren-Fabriken Harburg-Wien' |
| 1872 | Hyatt patented the first injection moulding machine. |
| 1876 | Sir Henry Wickham shipped 70,000 seeds from the Wild Rubber Tree to England from Brazil. Those that survived the long journey were planted in Kew Gardens and later shipped to Malaysia and other hot countries in South-East Asia. |
| 1888 | Henry Nicholas Ridley was appointed the director of the Singapore botanic gardens and encouraged the planting of rubber crops throughout Asia. |
| 1898 | Eduard Polón creates Nokian Footwear brand as part of the company called Finnish Rubber Works Ltd originally in Helsinki, Finland. Later, the parent company Nokia becomes a major telecommunications company. |
| 1887 | John Boyd Dunlop invents first inflatable rubber tyre. |
| 1891 | The Washington Shoe Company is founded. The company sells boots for the Alaska Gold Rush. Later their "Western Chief" brand will become a popular make of children's rain boot. |
| 1905 | George Oenslager discovered that a derivative of aniline called thiocarbanilide accelerated the action of sulphur to rubber, leading to shorter cure times and reducing energy consumption. |
| 1910 | Henry Ford founds the "Ford Motor Company" and invents the "Model T" mass produced motorcar. Demand for rubber for use in rubber tyres increases exponentially for many years. |
| 1914 - 1918 | World War I Millions of pairs of rubber trench boots ordered for war by The War Office. Hunter Boot Ltd produced 1,185,036 pairs of wellies for British soldiers in the trenches |
| 1920 | Peter Mathias establishes Askim Gummivarefabrikk later to become Viking Shoes, makers of fine rubber boots. |
| 1924 | Dunlop Rubber Factory starts making shoes. |
| 1925 | Dunlop Rubber merges with Macintosh and Co. |
| 1927 | Dunlop Wellington boot is born |
| 1927 | Claude Chamot hand-crafted the first pair of Le Chameau boots in his factory in Northern France. By 2010 Le Chameau will be producing over 350,000 high-quality boots per year. |
| 1930 | First research into rubber additives for road surface materials. |
| 1930 | Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists on April 17, 1930. Neoprene will become a popular alternative to rubber. |
| 1937 | Dubarry of Ireland founded. Dubarry will produce some of the worlds most elegant boot designs the world has ever seen. |
| 1939 - 1945 | World War II. See here for a photo of the Dunlop Rubber Co Ltd factory floor manufacturing rubber Wellington boots during WWII |
| 1946 | American inventor James Watson Hendry built the first screw injection machine improving quality of injection moulded products. |
| 1966 | Uniroyal Ltd purchases North British Rubber. |
| 19th September 1970 | The first Glastonbury Festival was held on the day after Jimi Hendrix died. Glastonbury will later lead to popular fashion wellington boot production. The festival is held every year in June. |
| 1974 | Scottish comedian Billy Connolly adopted a comical ode to the boot called "The Welly Boot Song" as his theme tune. |
| 1980's | Phoenix SA stops production of rubber boots - starting spin-off company Palladium SA. |
| 1981 | Lady Diana Spencer wears Hunter Wellington boots in engagement photo. |
| 1986 | Uniroyal purchased by Gates Rubber Company |
| 1991 | Dunlop Boot makes first Wellington Boot made from recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC). |
| 1994 | L'Aigle IPO at Paris Stock Exchange |
| 25 October 1994 | William's Wish Wellingtons an animated BBC children's television series made by Hibbert Ralph Entertainment. William could wish himself anywhere in the world or ask for anything he wanted - which sometimes got him into a spot of bother. |
| 1986 | Gates Rubber Company purchased by Tomkins PLC |
| 1997 | Liping Yang and Jonathan Domsky start the Kidorable brand in Chicago, making children's apparel and accessories. Kidorable becomes a leading children's Wellington boot distributor. By 2015 Kidorable will generate $15 million in sales of raingear for children per annum. |
| 1999 | The Original Muck Boot Company starts with the purpose of building comfortable, high performance, waterproof footwear. |
| 2000 | Daniel Dunko, MD of Mackintosh Ltd launches new partnerships with fashion labels Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Liberty, making the Mackintosh a highly sought after item of clothing. |
| 2004 | Management buy out of Hunter Ltd |
| 2005 | Angelina Jolie stars in Mr and Mrs Smith wearing red hunter wellies. |
| 2008 | Kate Moss wears wellies to Glastonbury. |
| 2009 | Jimmy Choo releases crocodile print, gold rivetted, leopard-print lined, £250 fashion Wellington Boots. |
| 2000 - 2010 | Globalisation trends lead many rubber boot manufactures to relocate manufacturing to the APAC region, including China, India, and the Philippines. |
| 2010 | Fashion Trends in Wellington Boots continue. Two examples of modern Wellington fashions are wedge welly and the cardi welly. |
| 2012 | Reminiscent of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, wearing Hunters, in 1981, Kate Middleton the Duchess of Cambridge, wears French 'Le Chameau' wellies. |