Benjamin Randell Harris

rdf:langString Benjamin Randell Harris

rdf:langString Benjamin Randell Harris

rdf:langString Benjamin Randell Harris

rdf:langString burial 12 Dec 1858 Victoria Park Cemetery Bethnal Green London

rdf:langString *Napoleonic Wars **Battle of Copenhagen **Battle of Køge *Peninsular War **Battle of Óbidos **Battle of Roliça **Battle of Vimeiro **Retreat to Vigo *War of the Fifth Coalition **Walcheren Expedition

rdf:langString Benjamin Randell Harris was a British infantryman who served in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He is most widely remembered today as the author of a memoir of his time in the army entitled The Recollections of Rifleman Harris, which has been seen as giving a rare insight into the world of the enlisted man in Wellington's army. Most memoirs published after the war came from serving officers, and the experiences of ordinary soldiers were overlooked due to the illiteracy of so many people at that time. Harris himself was illiterate. His recollections were recorded in the 1830s by an officer who knew him, named Captain Henry Curling. Curling himself is the only source for this encounter. Curling later wrote that he kept the manuscript based on their conversation until 1848, when he succeeded in getting it published.