Searching for Shadrack Byfield

Join Dr Eamonn O’Keeffe as he explores the War of 1812 through the eyewitness account of a disabled British veteran of the conflict.

The military memoirs of Shadrack Byfield, a Wiltshire weaver and war amputee, have long enjoyed a prominent place in the story of the Anglo-American War of 1812. As one of the few eyewitness accounts of the conflict from a rank-and-file British soldier, his autobiography has been widely quoted in books, documentaries and museum displays. Yet very little is known about the man behind the memoir.

Drawing on original research, including a newly discovered second autobiography, this talk investigates Byfield’s efforts to navigate civilian life, secure veterans’ benefits and publish accounts of his experiences. It chronicles the ex-soldier’s invention of a prosthesis to enable a return to work and analyses his shifting and sometimes contradictory self-presentation in print.

O’Keeffe uses Byfield’s lively and often moving story as a case study through which to explore the broader experiences of British veterans returning home after the Napoleonic Wars.

About the speaker

Dr Eamonn O’Keeffe is a National Army Museum Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His research interests include military music, duelling and honour among army officers, and the broader connections between war and society in Georgian Britain.

Eamonn’s work has won the André Corvisier prize, awarded by the International Commission for Military History for the best PhD thesis in the field, and the Pollard Prize, awarded by the Institute for Historical Research.