John Oswald

General Sir John Oswald was a prominent British Army officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars whose service was conducted in seven different theatres of war. Oswald was born in Fife and educated in France, which gave him both excellent command of the French language and close connections with the French aristocracy. The excesses of the French Revolution gave him a hatred of the French Republic and later Empire, and his exemplary service in the West Indies, the Netherlands, Malta, Italy, Egypt, the Adriatic and finally the Peninsular War demonstrated both his keen tactical and strategic understanding his and personal courage.