Considering Grey's importance, and the prominence of the family he helped to found, it is surprising that he has been neglected by history. Only a short sketch in the Dictionary of National Biography, and an article by Sir John Fortescue in the Edinburgh Review have ever attempted even perfunctory assessments of his life. As a man and an army officer, Grey represented some of the best qualities of eighteenth-century British civilization. In America, he fought during the War of American Independence and in 1794 in the West Indies against France. Hence, as Nelson shows, his career is important in American History. Given his long service to the British nation in all her wars from 1744 to 1800, it is clear from Nelson's account that Grey is an important character in British history as well. During his lifetime, Grey proved himself a reliable and successful soldier, earning and deserving all his honors: Knight of the Bath in 1782, baron in 1801, viscount and earl in 1806.

A compelling history of the British Army in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—showing how the military gathered knowledge from campaigns across the globe “Superb analysis.”—William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal At the outbreak of the War of Austrian Succession in 1742, the British Army’s military tactics were tired and outdated, stultified after three decades of peace. The army’s leadership was conservative, resistant to change, and unable to match new military techniques developing on the continent. Losses were cataclysmic and the force was in dire need of modernization—both in terms of strategy and in leadership and technology. In this wide-ranging and highly original account, Huw J. Davies traces the British Army’s accumulation of military knowledge across the following century. An essentially global force, British armies and soldiers continually gleaned and synthesized strategy from war zones the world over: from Europe to the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Davies records how the army and its officers put this globally acquired knowledge to use, exchanging information and developing into a remarkable vehicle of innovation—leading to the pinnacle of its military prowess in the nineteenth century.

Death Before Glory! is a highly readable, thoroughly researched and comprehensive study of the British army's campaigns in the West Indies during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period and of the extraordinary experiences of the soldiers who served there. Rich in sugar, cotton, coffee and slaves, the region was a key to British prosperity and it was perhaps even more important to her greatest enemy France. Yet, until now, the history of this vital theatre of the Napoleonic Wars has been seriously neglected. Not only does Martin Howard describe, in graphic detail, the entirety of the British campaigns in the region between 1793 and 1815, he also focuses on the human experience of the men the climate and living conditions, the rations and diet, military discipline and training, the treatment of the wounded and the impact of disease. Martin Howard's thoroughgoing and original work is the essential account of this fascinating but often overlooked aspect of the history of the British army and the Napoleonic Wars.

From the mid 18th century up till after memories of the Napoleonic wars and the glories of 'Nelson's navy' had faded, the Royal Navy was the bulwark of Britain's defence and the safeguard of trade and imperial expansion. While there have been political and military histories of the Navy in this period, looking at battles and personalities, and studies of its administration and the life below decks, this book is the first study of the Navy in a cultural context, exploring contemporary attitudes to war and peace and to ideologies of race and gender. As well as literary sources, Dr Lincoln draws on the vast collections of the National Maritime Museum, in paintings, cartoons, and ceramics, amongst others, to focus attention on material that has hitherto been little used - even research into the general culture of the late-Georgian age has, curiously, neglected perceptions of the Navy, which was one of its major institutions. Individual chapters discuss the attitudes of particular groups towards the Navy - merchants, politicians, churchmen, women, scientists, and the seamen themselves - and how these attitudes changed over the course of the period.

"N. A. M. Rodger provides reassessments of such famous figures as Pepys, Hawke, Howe, and St. Vincent. The particular and distinct qualities of Nelson and Collingwood are contrasted, and the world of the officers and men who made up the originals of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower is brought to life. Rodger's comparative view of other navies - French, Dutch, Spanish, and American - allows him to make a fresh assessment of the qualities of the British."--BOOK JACKET.