Willem Benjamin Craan

[1] Craan studied at Leiden University and obtained a doctorate in law on 27 August 1795 (the Batavian Republic had just been established).

He performed so well in this function that the next year he was promoted and put in charge of the Cadastre of the département de la Lippe (in Germany).

In the explanatory note he mentions the names of generals Mouton, Lobau, Excelmans and Gérard on the French side.

Colonel François Aimé Mellinet (chief-of-staff of the Young Guard Division[5]) advised him on the map, as did "a number of Prussian generals" to whom he was introduced by Prince Frederick of the Netherlands.

The Prince of Orange, who had commanded an army corps at the battle later viewed the map and approved of it (as did the Duke of Wellington[6]).

[10] Craan also helped establish the first series of meteorological measurements in Belgium by starting barometric soundings on the steeple of the Brussels city hall in 1825.

The latter, known in Brussels as la belle hollandaise, was married to major-general Willem Frederik van Bylandt, the commander of the Bijlandt brigade at Waterloo.