Stuart grew up in Rochester, Kent, trained as a teacher at Borough Road College and started his first teaching post in Suffolk in September 1980. He worked in four schools during his teaching career acting in different roles including headteacher, retiring after 37 years. He has a large extended family and his daughters have him busy travelling the country keeping up with all that they are involved in! His love of Napoleonic history started in the days when Airfix made plastic figures and he was taken to the film Waterloo by his dad. Although more of a spectator nowadays, he still loves sport and will often be seen shouting at a TV screen with friends as they tell the players what they should have done!
Fin and Thomo return to England with the seemingly simple purpose of delivering Sir Robert de Lacy, lately wounded at the battle of Vitoria, and his wife to their Dorset estate, but this is only a deception arranged by the Duke of Wellington commanding the army in Spain for his desire to know whether the new experimental weapon, Congreve’s rockets, has improved sufficiently for deployment with his army that is much in need of artillery.
Fin and Thomo’s investigation will take them to London, where they have to prove their worth to members of the Rocket Brigade, survive the ravages of storms at sea before setting foot on dry land to begin the campaign, under a foreign commander who once served Napoleon, leading to the climactic Battle of Leipzig, where not all of the new troops will live to fight another day…
Having survived near disaster at the battle of Fuentes d’Onoro, Fin Ross continues his adventures with the Horse Artillery as the army advances into Spain, having to overcome the rugged mountain landscape, as well as an army of deserters. Heading for the battle of Vitoria, Fin works with his trusted friend Thomo to bring the guns to their allotted position against the advancing enemy and has to come to terms with his respected captain being falsely arrested whilst yet again facing the man who hates him more than any other…
Fin Ross grew up working on the land in the small village of Pamphill, Dorset, as the ripples of the French Revolution began to have their impact on Britain. Bound to the ‘de Lacey’ family who owned the magnificent Great House, Fin is discovered in a place that he probably should not have been and observing something that he probably should not have seen but which would change his life.
Having to flee from his home, Fin ‘volunteers’ for the army, starting a new life that leads him into adventures across Southern England but swiftly moves to Portugal and one of the greatest battles of the era. He learns to survive not only from the threat of musket, sword and cannon from the enemy, but also from those who have followed him from his home.
Trusted friends become an integral part of Fin’s fight for survival as he faces up to shot, shell, accusation and treachery…
Having survived the Battle of Leipzig, the newly created Rocket Brigade has been split with Fin and Thomo briefly returning to England before heading back to the Duke of Wellington where they are to report on this new weapon. The new troop have to pass a series of tests and conditions before being allowed to take part in the invasion of France. Assisting partisans; discovering a wrecked ship: being isolated on the wrong side of a river with the garrison of Bayonne approaching: providing the only ordnance halfway up the hillside overlooking Toulouse, Fin and Thomo have to find a way out of the blunders created by those in command, leading them, as always, into plenty of adventures where they meet old and make new friends along the way…
“Good for frightening horses!” was a comment made by the Duke of Wellington to his staff in reaction to having watched a trial firing of the new-fangled weapon, the rockets!Have Fin and Thomo risked t ........
There are many statues of Wellington as you travel around Britain, some have been ‘decorated’ with road cones or graffiti but there is no doubt that the countries of the United Kingdom thought it a fi ........
It is not every day that you might be invited to share drinks from a loving cup that was originally a chamber pot! However, officers of the 14th Light Dragoons have taken great pride in being part of ........
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