Memoirs of a Sergeant Late in the Forty-Third Light Infantry Regiment . . . (London: John Mason, 1835), PP. 1–5, 11–14, 19–24, 63–8, 79, 98, 150–1, 176–9, 246–51, 269–75.

The early pages of his memoir identified the author as “Benjamin”, born in Ireland in 1790, and raised Catholic. It seems likely that parts of this autobiography have been embellished with the aid of Napier’s history, the first volume of which emerged in 1828. The book contains passages that offer anecdotes with almost identical wording to Napier’s, and the sergeant frequently left his first-person narrative to offer a more distant, contextualising perspective. Regardless, the personal elements of Benjamin’s account provided ample proof of a common soldier’s attachment to home and family. His account of his sister not recognising him was distinctive in showing that families were not always inclined to be good to strangers in uniform simply because they had a loved one in the army. The memoir also devoted significant space to Benjamin’s life after the army, revealed his wife and daughter’s role in his conversion to Methodism, and gave some insight into his experiences as a father and household head. It is also unique because of Benjamin’s connection to the Royal Military Asylum in his later career.