Acknowledgements

In writing this book, we have not attempted to indulge in a detailed military history of the times but rather to use that history as a backcloth to the love story of Harry and Juana. Purists might therefore blame us for skating over the detail, say, of Waterloo or many of the Peninsula War battles. While these were, of course, important we have only been more specific in the battles vital to the story, such as Badajoz and Aliwal. We have tried to use primary sources, where possible, at the National Archives at Kew, the National Army Museum and, of course, Christopher Robinson’s memorabilia, but have, with gratitude, leant on many of the outstanding books listed in the Bibliography.

We must thank Charles Messenger for suggesting our meeting and his support and guidance with the project.

The Museums at Whittlesey and the Rifles at Winchester have been invaluable – we could not have done this without Maureen Watson at the former and Ken Gray at the latter. We are indebted to the Trustees of the Rifles Museum for permission to publish Harry’s portrait and to Maureen for the various photographs and documents from Whittlesey. We also thank Geoff Oldfield and his wife, Margaret, for allowing us into St Mary’s Church and directing us to Harry and Juana’s grave. The Curator of the Queen’s Royal Lancers Museum, Captain Holtby, and David Nalson helped us with the exploits of the outstanding 16th Lancers at Aliwal. Photographs have all been taken by Louisa Scott (www.louisascottphotography.com), except where differently noted. Maps are sketched from those in Fortescue’s History of the British Army published in 1920, with the exception of Aliwal which hangs on the wall of the new ‘Hero of Aliwal’ pub in Whittlesey. The landlady was tickled with the idea of our book and gladly gave us permission to publish it!

Christopher Robinson, Harry’s great-great-nephew, was exceptionally helpful in allowing us complete access to all his papers, plus Harry’s and Juana’s medals, portraits and busts. This was the golden nugget of our research and we are eternally grateful to him for permission to use as much as we wanted in the book.

Finally, as the artist relies on the gallery owner, we could not have done this without the help and encouragement of Kathy Rooney, our agent, Henry Wilson, our publisher, and Keyth Rooney and Jim Gracey for technical advice, to whom we owe much thanks.

David Rooney and Michael Scott

Cambridge and London