Barnard Bowes Foord's was born and baptized on 10 July 1769 at St Saviour's Church in York, Yorkshire, England.

His family bought him an officer's commission and he joined the 26th Foot Regiment as an ensign on 25 October 1781 at the age of 12.

Not quite six months later on 1 December 1796 he purchased the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 6th Foot and went to join the unit in Ireland.

[3] When Lieutenant General Peter Hunter died that August, Bowes became the commanding officer of all British troops in Canada by seniority.

[1] In the Dos de Mayo Uprising of May 1808, the Spanish people rose in revolt against the French troops occupying their country.

Both the ruling Tories and the opposition Whigs saw the Spanish revolt as an opportunity for the United Kingdom to effectively intervene against Emperor Napoleon on the European continent.

When the Spanish authorities declined the offer of soldiers, the British government determined to send an expedition to the Kingdom of Portugal which was occupied by French troops.

[4] On 1 August 1808, Wellesley's force landed at the mouth of the Mondego River near Figueira da Foz.

[5] On 17 August, Wellesley's 13,000 British and 2,000 Portuguese fought 4,350 Frenchmen under General of Division Henri François Delaborde in the Battle of Roliça.

To this end, he sent the Portuguese to the right and Major General Ronald Craufurd Ferguson to the left with his own and Bowes' brigades plus six guns.

When Delaborde evaded the trap and withdrew to a ridge, Ferguson's two brigades again tried to loop around the French flank.

The following day, ships with 4,000 more British soldiers in two brigades appeared offshore near Vimeiro and Wellesley marched to meet them.

The French attacked and all of Ferguson's and Nightingall's troops were engaged, but Bowes' brigade did not fire a shot or suffer any casualties.

He took command of an expedition to Málaga to support Spanish General Luis de Lacy, but the force returned to Gibraltar without landing.

In fact the French had dug it out to a depth of 6 feet; twenty British and thirty Portuguese soldiers drowned.

When the advance parties of the 4th and Light Divisions entered the ditch, the French sappers ignited the incendiary devices and mines they had thickly sown.

When the 5th Division broke into the fortress and fired into the backs of the troops defending the breaches, the French surrendered in a body.

[13] While leading the assault on the right breach, Bowes was badly wounded; he was shot in the thigh and stabbed by a bayonet.

[15] By 17 June the Allied army began the Siege of the Salamanca Forts, a trio of heavily fortified convents manned by 800 French soldiers and 36 cannons.

[17] An engineer suggested an alternate route of attack that had more cover, but Bowes decided to charge straight up the glacis.

[17] Afterward, the British requested a truce to retrieve the dead and wounded but the French refused and Bowes' body had to be recovered later.