Emigré and Foreign Troops in British Service (2), 1803-15

Following his study of the astonishing range of French Royalist and foreign mercenary units employed by Britain in the period 1793–1802 (Men-at-Arms 328), the author describes - often for the first time in an English language publication - the part played by their successors during the crucial years of the Napoleonic Wars. He covers not only relatively well-recorded units, such as Roll’s, Meuron’s and Watteville’s Swiss corps, but also the unjustly neglected Italians, Corsicans and Greeks, and such exotica as the African and Ceylon regiments. Uniform details of nearly 40 corps are based on impressive primary research, and this book and its companion volume make a genuinely new contribution to Napoleonic studies.

René Chartrand was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including almost 20 Osprey titles and the first two volumes of Canadian Military Heritage. He lives in Hull, Quebec, with his wife and two sons.