WELLINGTON’S CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA

The Duke of Wellington made his military reputation not in fighting Napoleon’s armies in the Peninsular War or at Waterloo – but in a series of colonial campaigns in the early days of British rule in India. Wellington – then Colonel Sir Arthur Wellesley – arrived in British-ruled Bengal in 1797 and over the next seven years fought a series of engagements, including sieges and pitched battles, against such foes as the bandit chief Dhoondiah Waugh, and the Mahratta confederacy,. He was uniformally successful and left India a General on the threshold of one of history’s greatest military careers. This full official account of Wellington’s Indian military apprenticeship, supported by excellent and detailed maps drawn up by the Army’s Intelligence Branch, will interest students of the Duke’s life, Napoleonic buffs and all those fascinated by Britain’s role in India.