Guest Rahere perhaps you should have referenced that "quote" of the Duke of Wellington's and stated it in its complete form:

1: It is a note of a conversation with the Duke dated 11th November 1831 and the subject under discussion was the difference between the French and British Armies in Spain in 1813.

2: The complete quote is as follows:

"A French army is composed very differently from ours. The conscription calls out a share of every class — no matter whether your son or my son — all must march; but ours friends — I may say it in this room — are the very scum of the earth. People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling — all stuff — no such thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children — some for minor offences — many more for drink; but you can hardly conceive such a set brought together, and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.

The Duke of Wellington was renowned for never forgetting the men who served under him. In his final years as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports a veteran of the Peninsula campaign a former Sergeant came knocking at his door down on his luck. He asked the Duke for some work and the Duke said that he needed a gardener at Walmer Castle his "Official Residence" the former Sergeant said, "But your Grace, I know nothing of gardening" and the Duke replied, "Neither do I, but you will learn." And learn he did, evidenced by a Cherry Tree that still stands in the grounds that that old Sergeant had grown from a Cherry Stone and planted.

Special Military Hospitals were built at Chelsea in London and at Kilmainham in Dublin and the Royal Hospital at Haslar. These were closed down, Haslar being the last in 2001, before our troops were sent to Afghanistan - this was done on Tony Blair's watch as a cost cutting exercise.