John Harley

John Harley was born in Cork, Ireland on 18 November 1769 and lived with his mother for most of his youth in the area of Kilkenny. At the age of fourteen he was put to work at a merchant house in the city but soon chose to pursue a military career with the Tarbert Fencibles. He later served with the 54th Foot in Egypt and the 47th Foot in the Peninsular War. He went on half-pay in 1814 and later joined the British volunteers who went out in 1821-3 to serve in the Miguelite wars under Sir Robert Wilson. He resigned his commission for a commuted allowance on 20 January 1832 and then lived in Bristol and Liverpool until his death around 1843.

Gareth Glover is a fifty-six year old, ex Royal Naval officer who has studied the Napoleonic wars for the last forty years. He has become renowned as the foremost expert on memoirs of participants in the Napoleonic Wars, publishing over sixty of them to date. Gareth lives with his wife Mary in Cardiff and has two grown up children.