Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE is a fictional character created by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) in the semi-autobiographical Tom Brown's School Days (1857) and later developed by George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008).

Fraser decided to write the story of Flashman's later life, in which the school bully would be identified as an "illustrious Victorian soldier", experiencing many of the 19th-century wars and adventures of the British Empire and rising to high rank in the British Army, to be acclaimed as a great warrior, while still remaining "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward—and, oh yes, a toady.

"[2] In the papers – which are purported to have been written by Flashman and discovered only after his death – he describes his own dishonourable conduct with complete candour.

Buckley, a bold young officer in the British cavalry, is said to have been wounded in action at Talavera in 1809, and then to have gained access to "society" by sponsoring bare-knuckle boxer Tom Molineaux (the first black man to contend for a championship).

The character subsequently marries Flashman's mother Lady Alicia Paget, a fictional relation of the real Marquess of Anglesey.

Beside politics, the older Flashman character has interests including drinking, fox hunting (riding to hounds), and women.

He has one great advantage in concealing this weakness: when he is frightened, his face turns red, rather than white, so that observers think he is excited, enraged, or exuberant—as a hero ought to be.

In 1840 the regiment is converted to Hussars with an elegant blue and crimson uniform, which assists Flashman in attracting female attention for the remainder of his military career.

There he meets and deflowers Elspeth Morrison, daughter of a wealthy textile manufacturer, whom he has to marry in a "shotgun wedding" under threat of a horsewhipping by her uncle.

Flashman survives the ensuing retreat from Kabul (the worst British military debacle of Victoria's reign) by a mixture of sheer luck and unstinting cowardice.

He becomes an unwitting hero: the defender of Piper's Fort, where he is the only surviving white man, and is found by the relieving troops clutching the flag and surrounded by enemy dead.

However, most of these acts of 'bravery' are performed only when he has absolutely no choice and to do anything else would result in his being exposed as a coward and losing his respected status in society, or being shot for desertion.

During the siege of Piper's Fort, in the first novel, Flashman cowers weeping in his bed at the start of the final assault; the only witness to this dies before relief comes.

In its obituary[8] of George MacDonald Fraser, The Economist commented that realistic sharp-sightedness ("if not much else") was an attribute Flashman shared with his creator.

In Flashman and the Great Game, about halfway through his life, he counted up his sexual conquests while languishing in a dungeon at Gwalior, "not counting return engagements", reaching a total of 478 up to that date (similar—albeit not equal—to the tally made by Mozart's Don Giovanni in the famous aria of Giovanni's henchman, Leporello).

He was also once reminded of a woman that Elspeth claimed he flirted with named Kitty Stevens, though Flashman was unable to remember her.

He had a special penchant for royal ladies, and noted that his favourite amours (apart from his wife) were Lakshmibai, Ci Xi and Lola Montez: "a Queen, an Empress, and the foremost courtesan of her time: I dare say I'm just a snob."