Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere GCB GCH KSI PC (14 November 1773 - 21 February 1865), was a British Army officer, diplomat and politician. As a junior officer he took part in the Flanders Campaign, in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and in the suppression of Robert Emmet's insurrection in 1803. He commanded a cavalry brigade in Sir Arthur Wellesley's Army before being given overall command of the cavalry in the latter stages of the Peninsular War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and then Commander-in-Chief, India. In the latter role he stormed Bharatpur—a fort which previously had been deemed impregnable. This book, which was published in two volumes, represents Viscount Combermere's memoirs in the form of a vast collection of his private papers, as collated by his third wife, Mary, Viscountess Combermere. They serve to provide an invaluable and comprehensive view of the public and private life of one of England's most distinguished soldiers.