Thomas Hatfield decided that a farmer’s life wasn’t him and decided to join his local regiment, the Lancashire Light Foot.

Soon he was plunged into the tumultuous events of the Napoleonic Wars. He was sickened by the villainy of a crooked sergeant and his cronies, in addition to the threat from the opposing French army at the battle of Waterloo.

After massacre at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester – which became known as ‘Peterloo’ – the young man wondered if a life in England was what he really wanted…