WELLINGTON’S VOICE The Candid Letters of Lieutenant Colonel John Fermantle, Coldstream Guards, 1808-1821

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN FREMANTLE WAS on Wellington’s personal staff through the later years of the Peninsular War and the Waterloo campaign. He had a uniquely privileged view of the general and in this fascinating new book, which brings together a collection of personal letters written to his uncle, he speaks candidly of his exploits – good and bad.
Fremantle deals with military matters in fascinating detail and gives a great insight into Wellington’s honest views of matters – not the sanitised diplomatic versions Wellington allowed to be published in later life. He also talks a great deal about the personalities in ‘Wellington’s family’ and the ‘Great Man’, giving very open, forthright views of their strengths and failings, and brings many little-known incidents to light. He describes the back-stabbing, the one-upmanship and the intriguing within Wellington’s inner circle, and reveals the foibles of the duke himself; his philandering, his irascible nature, and his own petty intrigues and jealousies.
An exposé of what life was like working with Wellington and an honest portrait of the man warts and all – this is a truly remarkable find by Gareth Glover and will certainly cause debate in the Napoleonic community.