Disabled vet’s lost war memoir reveals redcoat’s rough life

By Stephen Beech

The harsh realities of life as a disabled war veteran in Victorian Britain is revealed in a redcoat’s lost memoir.

A historian's discovery of the 19th Century autobiography of Shadrack Byfield sheds new light on his life after returning from the War of 1812 minus an arm.

Byfield, who buried his own amputated left arm and went on to design a custom prosthesis, has been a recurrent character in TV documentaries, books and museum exhibits in the United States and Canada.

He has been celebrated as an uncomplaining British soldier.

But new evidence reveals his tenacious pursuit of veterans’ benefits and his struggles with pain and poverty.

In his rediscovered autobiography, Byfield laments the continued impact of his wartime injuries decades later.

He wrote: "It now pleased the Lord to afflict me with a violent rheumatic pain in my right shoulder, from which the [musket] ball was cut out.

"I was in this condition for nearly three years: oftentimes I was not able to lift my hand to my head, nor a tea-cup to my mouth."

Frustrated by an employer's refusal to pay him full wages while working as a gardener, Byfield insisted: "I never saw the man that would compete with me with one arm."

Cambridge historian Dr. Eamonn O’Keeffe found what he believes to be the only surviving copy of Byfield’s History and Conversion of a British Soldier.

Published in London in 1851, the only copy known to survive turned up 3,700 miles away in the Western Reserve Historical Society’s library in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. O’Keeffe findings were published in the Journal of British Studies.

He said: “Byfield’s account of his wartime experiences is quite well known but the man behind the memoir has remained elusive.

"Uncovering these new details about his life provides remarkable insight into the suffering and resilience of Britain’s homecoming soldiers."

The War of 1812 was fought between Britain and the United States in North America.

Historians view Byfield’s first memoir as an important source, offering the rare perspective of an ordinary British soldier fighting around the Great Lakes.

His story has featured in history books and TV documentaries, including PBS’s The War of 1812.

Byfield was also the protagonist in a 1985 children’s novel, Redcoat by Gregory Sass, and is the subject of a display at Fort Erie Visitor Centre in Ontario, Canada.

It had been assumed that Byfield died around 1850, but Dr. O’Keeffe’s discovery of his 1851 memoir, along with additional evidence from newspapers and archives, adds new chapters to his remarkable story.

Research shows Byfield was born near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, in 1789 and joined the Wiltshire militia in 1807, aged 18.

He claimed his mother was so distraught that she fell into a fit and died within days.

Byfield volunteered for the regular army and sailed to Canada in 1809 to join the 41st Regiment of Foot.

When the US declared war in June 1812, he was serving at Fort George along the Niagara River.

He took part in several battles and survived a wound to the neck, but a musket ball shattered his left forearm in 1814.

Byfield’s arm was sawn off below the elbow without anaesthetic and flung onto a "dung-heap" by a medical orderly.

He retrieved his lost limb and insisted on giving it a proper burial, nailing together a few boards as a makeshift coffin.

A year later, he reported to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London for consideration for an army pension, but was "very much dissatisfied" with his award of nine pence a day.

Byfield returned to Bradford-on-Avon and initially eked out a living as a farm labourer, being prevented by his disability from returning to his former trade as a weaver.

He wrote about how he dreamt of an “instrument" which would allow him to operate a loom despite his missing forearm.

He commissioned a local blacksmith to realize the design.

Byfield also supplemented his income by working as a "chairman" in nearby Bath, ferrying infirm patients through the city’s steep streets in wheelchairs or sedan chairs, despite his own disability.

He launched a campaign to obtain a higher pension, eventually succeeding r in 1836 with the help of retired army officer Sir William Napier.

Byfield published his first memoir, A Narrative of a Light Company Soldier's Service, in 1840.

While Byfield is usually assumed to have been illiterate, Dr. O’Keeffe discovered a draft of the autobiography in Napier’s papers in the author’s own handwriting.

Dr O’Keeffe said: “In the 1840 narrative, Byfield sought to impress wealthy patrons by presenting himself as a dutiful soldier and deserving veteran.

“The 1851 memoir, by contrast, was a spiritual redemption story, with Byfield tracing his progress from rebellious sinner to devout and repentant Christian.”

Byfield even admitted quitting camp without leave and joining fellow soldiers on a plundering expedition.

Dr. O’Keeffe said: “Such unflattering incidents are conspicuously absent from Byfield’s earlier accounts of his military service.

“In the 1851 memoir, the veteran also dwells on periods of indebtedness, illness and unemployment after returning to England, whereas in his earlier memoir he described maintaining his family ‘comfortably’ with his weaving prosthesis for nearly 20 years.”

Byfield returned to Bradford-on-Avon in 1856, and married his second wife.

He continued to receive an annual allowance from Napier, and travelled to London for his patron’s funeral in 1860.

By 1867, Byfield was selling a final memoir, The Forlorn Hope, no copies of which appear to survive, before his death, aged 84, in 1874.

Dr. O’Keeffe said: “Byfield’s 1851 memoir emphasises the challenges of post-war reintegration, especially for veterans with disabilities, in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars.

"It also demonstrates ex-soldiers' determination to secure the support they felt they were owed.”

He added: “My work also busts the myth that Byfield always did what he was told and never complained.

"He was very strong-willed, but also suffered a great deal of hardship and psychological strain.”