Next Monday marks a big anniversary for former Premier David Saul: 200 years since Waterloo, the epochal battle that ended the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte and ushered in a long peace for Europe.

“It’s one of the most famous battles of the modern era — if you say someone ‘met his Waterloo’ it means that he has gone ignominiously down the tube,” said Dr Saul, who served as Premier from 1995 to 1997.

June 18 is the 200th anniversary of a battle that will be commemorated around the world, and Dr Saul plans to observe the occasion quietly in his own right.

His personal collection of Waterloo medals was acquired right after Dr Saul sold off his compilations of Bermuda stamps and Bermuda currency — each of them the world’s best collections in their field.

Flush with credit, the history buff ­— who holds a special fascination for the Napoleonic Wars — didn’t make it out of Spinks Auction House without spotting some eye-catching medals. His collection now includes medals awarded to soldiers who fought in the various battles of the Napoleonic Wars, including two that went to soldiers who fought in the slaughter of Waterloo.

One is particularly rare: it went to Private Christopher Chapman, one of the lucky survivors, who was the orderly to the Duke of Wellington.

Wellington commanded the coalition led by the British, along with the Prussians under Gebhard von Blücher, that narrowly defeated the French forces.

Wellington later famously called Waterloo “the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life”.

“You’ve got to admire Napoleon Bonaparte as one of the greatest generals who ever lived after Caesar,” Dr Saul said.

“He was a superb tactician, a qualified artilleryman and a leader of men. His Imperial Guard, although Napoleon had left the battlefield, refused to surrender and were blown to smithereens.”

The defeat at Waterloo was fatal for Napoleon’s new aristocracy. The former Emperor was captured by the British and exiled to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he spent the last six years of his life.

Part of Waterloo’s intrigue, Dr Saul noted, was that but for some fundamental errors, Napoleon might have won it — changing the course of modern history.

“I am going to make quite a fuss of it,” he said of next Monday’s anniversary. “Wherever I am, everyone around me is going to get educated in the Battle of Waterloo.”