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William Lawrence
1791–1867
A British soldier whose memoir offers a vivid ground-level view of the Peninsular War and Waterloo, he wrote with the plainspoken detail of someone who had actually lived the campaigns. His autobiography was published after his death and remains valued as a firsthand military account.
1 Audiobook
The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence
by William Lawrence
About the author
Born in 1791 and dying in 1867, William Lawrence is best known for the memoir later published as The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence: A Hero of the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns. The book presents his experiences as an ordinary soldier rather than a commander, which gives it an immediate, lived-in feel.
Lawrence served in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, including the fighting in the Iberian Peninsula and the Waterloo campaign. His recollections are remembered for their directness and for the way they capture daily military life, hardship, and endurance from the ranks.
His manuscript was left unpublished during his lifetime and appeared in print in 1886, edited by George Nugent Bankes. That posthumous publication helped preserve a rare first-person record of the wars from a non-officer's point of view.