by Dr. John A. Hall. Greenhill 1998. ISBN 1-85367-315-3 £ 35.00

"Invaluable" is the obvious word which springs to mind in reviewing this very welcome addition to Sir Charles Oman's magisterial history of the Peninsular War.

Entries are arranged in alphabetical order and include foreign officers in British service (principally serving in the Chasseurs Britanniques and KGL, and Brunswick units) as well as regular British officers serving in the Portuguese and occasionally in the Spanish service.

All entries record the officer's rank, regiment and the date and place where misfortune struck, but the provision of supporting information is surprisingly patchy and it is difficult to avoid the impression that the dictionary would have benefited from a little more editing. There are also some surprising ornmissions such as Ralph Marshall, an English "adventurer" killed at Gerona in 1809, while the relatively extensive entry on Sir John Moore is almost entirely taken up with the circumstances of his death and has virtually nothing to say about his earlier career.

On the other hand where officers survived until 1827/28 the entries are satisfyingly solid. Full transcripts are provided of the returns of officers' services contained in the W025 series at the Public Records Office, Kew. For this extremely public spirited act alone Dr. Hall deserves our warmest thanks. Not only does it provide an unparalleled insight into the origins and career patterns of a substantial body of officers - including former rankers and at least one East India Company officer - but it also throws some interesting light on operational matters, including the fact that Light Companies did not operate independently, but were instead formed into provisional battalions within each division.

This book is an extremely important publication. It has a few, sometimes irritating, defects, but they pale into insignificance beside its admirable virtues. While it can most obviously be used as a quick reference (who was that masked man?), it is also a pleasant book to dip into and, most importantly of all a very meaty tool for all manner of further research into the Peninsular Army.