Brigadier Allan Lawrence Mallinson (born 6 February 1949) is an English author and retired British Army officer.
He was promoted to acting Colonel on 1 December 1992,[citation needed] and to substantive rank on 30 June 1993[9] and then to Brigadier on 1 September 1999.
[10] Beginning as a Cornet at Waterloo, Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons, and son of the vicar of Horningsham finds himself in many of the colonial military actions thereafter, including Ireland, Canada, India, South Africa, Burma and the Balkans.
Despite his personal trials he makes a very human effort to remain a man of honor, and the adversities he faces change him perceptibly as a character throughout the series.
Matthew Hervey's social life also demonstrates for the reader many of the customs and proprieties of English society in the early to mid 1800s.