George Napier (1784 1855) was a brother of the famous soldiers Sir Charles and Sir William Napier, and himself had a distinguished career in the British Army as general and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. He wrote these memoirs to guide and amuse his own children, not intending them to be widely circulated. In 1884, however, his son published them, earning a letter of congratulation from Queen Victoria. George Napier tells of his early army life, which took him around Europe from Sicily to Sweden to Bordeaux, and writes of his admiration for the Duke of Wellington, hailing...