author
Robert Blakeney
1789–1858
A teenage soldier’s memoir gives this book its unusual spark, mixing battlefield danger with the sharp, immediate voice of someone who lived through the Peninsular War at close range.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Galway in 1789, Robert Blakeney joined the British Army in 1804 while still very young. He served with the 28th Regiment and took part in major campaigns of the Napoleonic era, including the expedition to Copenhagen, the Coruña campaign, the siege of Tarifa, the battle of Barossa, the siege of Badajoz, and the battle of Nivelle, where he was badly wounded.
Blakeney later left the army in 1828. His best-known work is A Boy in the Peninsular War, an autobiographical account published after his death and edited by Julian Sturgis in 1899. The book stands out for its plain, vivid storytelling and for the rare perspective it offers on war through the eyes of a very young officer.
Available sources confirm that he died in 1858. Clear biographical details beyond his military service and memoir are limited in the sources reviewed, which makes the surviving autobiography especially valuable as a record of his life and times.