Thomas Jackson (1785/6-1859) joined the Staffordshire Militia in 1803 and transferred to the Coldstream Guards in 1812. He lost his right leg at Bergen-op-Zoom in 1814 and was discharged with a Chelsea pension. Jackson returned to Walsall, his hometown, and later worked as a coal merchant’s clerk, schoolteacher and plater.
Eamonn O’Keeffe recently completed a degree in history at Merton College, Oxford. His research on British Napoleonic-era military music, courts-martial, and soldiers’ memoirs has been published in Canadian Military History and the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. He served as Drum-Major of the Fort York Guard until 2016, leading a fife and drum corps at Canada’s best-preserved War of 1812 historic site.
