Rooke was mortally wounded at the Battle of Vargas Swamp on July 25, 1819, when he valiantly led his battalion in an uphill bayonet charge against Spanish forces on Picacho hill, army doctors desperately tried to save him however he died of gangrene 3 days later.

At the age of 21, Rooke joined the British Army in 1791 as a Second Lieutenant and took part in the various campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching the rank of major by 1802.

However, in 1801 he had to sell most of his property to pay his debts, and moved to France, which was then at peace with Britain, but when war broke out again, the French authorities interned him being held at Verdun.

When Napoleon returned in 1815 and began his Hundred Days campaign he traveled to Belgium to rejoin Wellington's army and fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

[2] Rooke left the British army in 1816 and made a trip to St. Kitts in the Caribbean to visit his sister Eleanor, who was wife of Thomas Probyn, the Governor of the colony.

In September 1817, Rooke sailed to Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar) in Venezuela and enrolled in General Simón Bolivar's Liberator army , that was fighting for Venezuelan independence from Spain.

In March 1819, Bolívar consolidated most of his foreign volunteers into a brigade of 250 men, named the British Legion, and appointed Rooke as its commander.

In a bold attempt to break the stalemate with the Spanish forces, Bolivar decided to move west, ascend the Andes and seize the high ground to liberate New Granada.

[9][10] However his efforts were vital in contributing to the Patriot victory which was finally achieved after 5 hours of gruelling combat which saw both sides taking heavy losses.