FERNYHOUGH, Thomas.

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Military Memoirs of Four Brothers, (Natives of Staffordshire,) Scarce first edition of this fascinating book, highlighting the cost to one family of the Napoleonic Wars. The list of subscribers totals 324 names taking 371 copies. Thomas Fernyhough, "the Survivor", fills much of his volume with the pungent recollections of his brother Robert, who served with the Royal Marines and the Rifle Brigade. A second edition appeared in 1830.Thomas Fernyhough was one of four brothers from Lichfield who all served: he went as an ensign with the King's Royal Rifle Corps (60th Foot) to Barbados where his health was broken by the conditions. His brothers Henry and John served with the Marines and were equally unfortunate: Henry died in Egypt and John was drowned during the capture of the Spanish first rate Rayo in 1805.The bulk of the volume is taken up with the journals and letters of Robert Fernyhough, responsible for the sketches upon which the attractive lithographs are based, who also started his career with the Marines and fared longer in the service. He was present at the capture of Cape Town in 1806 (giving a vivid account of the amphibious landing in "tremendous surf"), the unsuccessful invasion of the River Plate (1806-7), and the disastrous Walcheren expedition (1809). In August 1810 he applied to join the 95th Rifles and in June 1812 embarked for the Peninsula, where he suffers greatly.

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