Description
Jack Hill was born in Hennock in 1778. After attending Blundell’s school in Tiverton, he was commissioned as a boy into one of Britain’s most active regiments, the Royal Welch Fusiliers. His military career would span nearly 20 years. Mostly fightingNapoleon’s armies in seven campaigns across three continents, he participated in almost 40 individual actions, including pivotal battles like Albuera, Salamanca, Vitoria, and Waterloo.
His service earned him the title of ‘a real-life Richard Sharpe,’ after the fictional hero of Bernard Cornwell’s novels. But Jack Hill was no work of fiction: he survived being a prisoner of war, a major shipwreck, being wounded on four separate occasions and being left for dead on the battlefield at Waterloo. Against all odds, he survived, rejoined his regiment and went on to be its longest-serving soldier, only to be forced into retirement by his jealous Commanding Officer (who had missed Waterloo). After army life he lived in Dartington, where he died in 1838, with his youngest child (of seven) less than two years old. Buried in Hennock, he lies there today alongside his brother, who fought at the battle of Trafalgar – probably the only place in the world that a Waterloo and a Trafalgar veteran share the same grave.
The book, which has been praised by military experts and authors, is based on some 80 of Hill’s personal letters, which are published here in full for the first time. It was written with support from Hill’s living descendants, the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, and Blundell’s School, and draws on extensive original research from UK and Portuguese national archives, as well as visits to many of the battlefields where Hill fought and other places associated with his life.
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