author
Henry Curling
1803–1864
A British army captain who also wrote popular nineteenth-century fiction, he is now especially remembered for preserving the vivid memoir of Rifleman Harris. His career brought together military experience, historical romance, and a lasting link to the literature of the Napoleonic wars.
1 Audiobook
William Shakespeare as He Lived: An Historical Tale
by Henry Curling
About the author
Serving as a captain in the 52nd Regiment of Foot, he built a second career as a novelist in the mid-nineteenth century. Reference works and library sources connect him with a long list of fiction, including The Soldier of Fortune, John of England, Frank Beresford, The Miser Lord, Shakespeare, a Romance, Nonpareil House, Love at First Sight, and Self-Divorced.
He is most often noted today for Recollections of Rifleman Harris (1848). That book grew out of his meetings with Benjamin Randell Harris, a veteran of the Peninsular War, whose memories he helped bring into print. Because of that role, he has an important place not only in Victorian fiction but also in the survival of one of the best-known firsthand accounts of a British soldier in the Napoleonic era.
Available sources agree that he died in Kensington on February 10, 1864. I couldn't confidently confirm further personal details from the material I found, so this overview stays close to the better-attested facts of his military service, fiction writing, and editorial legacy.