English: Etching by Thomas Hodgetts, dated 1840, reproducing a painting from September 1839 by Lady Burghersh which depicts Arthur Wellesley, 1st Lord Wellington, beginning the redaction of the Waterloo Despatch in the early hours of June 19th, 1815. In the room en-suite, two officers mourn Colonel Alexander Gordon.

This copy is preserved by The British Museum.

The inscriptions at the foot of the frame read, from left to right : Painted by Lady Burghersh
London: Published June 18th. 1840, by Welch & Gwynne, Printsellers to the Royal Family, 24, St. James's Street.
Engraved by Thomas Hodgetts
Additional information provided by The British Museum : Dimensions : Height: 620 mm – Width: 445 mm.

Historical context – Battle of Waterloo.
Sunday, June 18th, 1815. At dusk (21:30), Lord Wellington met Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher near the Belle Alliance Inn, then came back to his headquarter at Waterloo where his aide-de-camp Colonel Alexander Gordon was laying dying. Having retired for the night, he was woken by Dr John Hume who told him of Colonel Gordon’s death (Monday 19th, 03:00). Lord Wellington, shocked but composed, undertook to write the famous Waterloo Despatch to the British Government announcing and describing the Victory of the Allied Forces – the missive that named the Battle (See also : ►(File:18_June_1815_–_Victory_at_Waterloo_–_Generalfeldmarschall_Blücher's_Report,_La_Belle_Alliance.jpg)).
At dawn (05:00), he headed for his residence at Brussels (►(File:18_June_1815_–_Victory_at_Waterloo_–_Wellington's_Residence_at_Brussels.jpg)) where he completed the despatch by midday, and entrusted it to his aide de camp Major Henry Percy, who rode off to England over Ostend.
By Tuesday 20th, Lord Wellington, himself en route to Paris, had already reached Nivelles.

As to the painting itself by Lady Burghersh (Priscilla Anne Fane, née Wellesley-Pole, Countess of Westmorland, 1793-1879), the Correspondence of Lady Burghersh with the Duke of Wellington reveals :
In 1839 Lady Burghersh had painted two pictures for her father — one (...), and one of the Duke himself writing the Waterloo despatch. The Duke took a great deal of interest in these pictures, and his usual love of truth showed itself in his anxiety that all details should be scrupulously accurate, lending her the actual despatch box, cloak, telescope, &c., &c., he had had in the room at Waterloo, to paint from.
Indeed, by mid-1840, the Bent's Monthly relayed an annoucement made by Welch & Gwynne, Publishers, about a portrait of the Duke of Wellington, painted by Lady Burghersh.

As announced anew in August 1840 by Bent's Monthly, said portrait was to be published shortly by Welch and Gwynne as a highly finished Engraving by Mr. Thomas Hodgetts. [To be noted that the prints would appear pre-dated to June 18th, 1840, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.]
And in February next year, the same publishers similarly announced a beautiful mezzotinto portrait (...) engraved by Mr. Frederick Bromley. [And, for the posterity, also pre-dated to June 18th, 1840.]
The inscription : "Wellington/Waterloo, June 19 1815" – (presumably) the handwriting of Lord Wellington himself – was optional for both editions, for one extra shilling.

One more reproduction of Lady Burghersh's painting is presently known : a photograph by Hudson & Kearns, London (no precise date known).
The unsigned woodcut published by The Illustrated London News (Nov. 20, 1852, p.436), soon after the death of Lord Wellington, is clearly copied on Fr. Bromley's etching (which seems to have been more largerly distributed than the one by Th. Hodgetts) ; and it is thanks to the large circulation of The Illustrated London News that the painting by Lady Burghersh was known to a vast audience.

In the absence of readily accessible view of the original painting by Lady Burghersh, and its whereabouts, one is left with comparing the successive engravings (all slightly different) to the photograph by Hudson & Kearns, and conclude that the scene imagined by Lady Burghersh, niece of Lord Wellington, is most faithfully reproduced by Th. Hodgetts, then by Fr. Bromley, finally by the (anonymous) woodcut.

Two centuries later, "The New Waterloo Dispatch". In the frame of the June 2015 re-enactement organized all along the way followed by Major Henry Percy from Brussels to London in June 1815, plaques have been unveiled on the 20th near the landing spot at Broadstairs, and on the next day at its final destination, St James's Square, 16, London – plaques conceived To inaugurate The Waterloo Way from Brussels to London and in honour of all those who fought at Waterloo on 18th June 1815.

The Waterloo Despatch, in the voice of Hugh Grant :►([1]).

How that historic moment is rendered by the Wellington Museum, Waterloo : ►(File:18_June_1815_–_Victory_at_Waterloo_–_The_Waterloo_Despatch,_2021.jpg).

Iconography : © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.