author
Joseph Jocelyn Anderson
1790–1877
A career soldier turned memoirist, he left behind a vivid first-hand account of war, empire, and colonial administration in the early nineteenth century. His writing is valued for its direct, observant view of life in the British Army and on Norfolk Island.
1 Audiobook
Recollections of a Peninsular Veteran
by Joseph Jocelyn Anderson
About the author
Born in Sutherland, Scotland, in 1790, Joseph Jocelyn Anderson spent more than four decades in the British Army. He served with the 78th, 24th, and 50th Regiments, fought during the Napoleonic era, and later became commandant of the second convict settlement on Norfolk Island.
Anderson is best known as the author of Recollections of a Peninsular Veteran, a memoir drawn from his long military life. Edited after his death by his grandson Acland Anderson and published in 1913, the book combines battlefield experience with personal reflection, which helps give it an unusually human, readable tone.
After his army career, he settled in Australia and also served in public life in Victoria. He died in 1877, and his memoir remains the work most closely associated with his name, especially for readers interested in the Napoleonic Wars, imperial history, and first-hand military narrative.