George Simmons

Born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1785, he first studied medicine before joining the military in 1805 as an assistant surgeon. After four years of service, he transferred to the 1st Battalion of the 95th Rifles as a second-lieutenant, beginning the long army career that would define his life.

He fought through major actions of the Peninsular War, including Côa, Fuentes de Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vitoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Tarbes, where he was severely wounded. At Waterloo, after fighting at Quatre Bras, he was shot through the liver and also suffered broken ribs and a chest wound, but he recovered and returned to service before eventually retiring in 1845 as a battalion major.

His lasting literary reputation comes from the journals and letters he sent home during the wars. These were later edited by Willoughby Verner and published in 1899 as A British Rifle Man: The Journals and Correspondence of Major George Simmons, Rifle Brigade, During the Peninsular War and the Campaign of Waterloo, preserving a clear and personal account of one soldier's experience in the Napoleonic era.