TV historian Dan Snow will be the special guest at an Amersham school next week as part of a project to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

The presenter will kick off a project set up by Waterloo200 - a government-appointed charity - at Dr Challoner's Grammar School on Thursday.

It is part of a scheme to teach youngsters about the historic battle, after research showed school pupils are becoming increasingly unaware of its significance.

Pupils at the school, in Chesham Road, have been given the name of a Buckinghamshire soldier who fought in the 1815 battle and details of an important artefact relating to the conflict.

It is the students' job to find out the soldier's background and create a profile of him, using free access they will be given to the Find My Past genealogy site as part of the project.

A special e book will be created of the findings from pupils of 200 schools who have been invited to take part. In addition a pupil and a teacher from each school will be invited to a service of commemoration at St Paul's Cathedral on June 18, the actual date of the battle.

In a letter sent to the school as part of the project, Mr Snow said: “We asked young people what they know about the events of 1815 and quickly realised that the Battle of Waterloo is fast becoming a forgotten relic of history. With your help we’d like to change that.

“It is one of the most important battles in British and world history. It ushered in a century of British global domination and it shaped Europe in ways that have endured to the present day. We’d like to rediscover the Battle of Waterloo.”