Wellington's Doctors

The doctors of Britain's Napoleonic army played a crucial role in the war against France. Wellington was fully aware of this and was the first British general to praise his doctors in dispatches. However, despite their importance, Wellington's doctors receive little attention in most accounts of the wars. In this groundbreaking study, many rare contemporary Napoleonic memoirs and letters have been consulted to give a unique and vivid picture of the army doctor and the sick and wounded soldiers in his care. Dr Martin Howard addresses the education of army doctors, their reasons for joining the army, their role on the battlefield, sick transport and hospitals, surgery, the treatment of disease, and the life of a doctor on campaign. Some were clumsy 'sawbones', but many were well-educated men who grappled heroically with the destructive effects of Napoleonic warfare and the overwhelming impact of disease.