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Wellington's Spies

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Mary McGrigor's "Wellington Spies" is an interesting addition to the literature on the Peninsular War of 1809-1814. The Duke of Wellington's survival and success against larger French Imperial Armies in Portugal and Spain was due in significant degree to his skill in gathering intelligence on his enemies. McGrigor has mined the surviving papers of three of his most successful spies for first hand accounts.

The three men, Colquhoun Grant, Charles Cocks, and Andrew Leith-Hay, were Scottish officers on active service with Wellington's Army. They were bold, resourceful, and observant men who regularly traveled behind French lines to bring Wellington valuable information on French units and their intentions. As McGrigor brings out, their exploits were colorful but the work was highly dangerous. Cocks was killed in action. Grant and Leith-Hay were captured by the French while on missions.

McGrigor has selected a series of excerpts from the papers of the three men, which provide the reader with a good sense of their often detailed observations on the campaigns of the Peninsular War. McGrigor stitches the selections together with a running narrative of the war, providing some context for their espionage.

McGrigor's connecting narrative on the Peninsular War is neither original nor sometimes very precise. As an example, she manages to describe the retreat of the 7th Division under fire during the second day of the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro without mentioning the legendary covering action by the Light Division that made their escape possible. McGrigor makes no systematic evaluation of the value of the information collected by the three spies, nor of the contributions of Wellington's networks of correspondents and guerillas in Spain.

Within its limitations, "Wellington's Spies" is a very approachable popular history for the general reader. It also provides enough insight on Wellington's intelligence gathering to be recommended as a book of interest to the dedicated student of the Peninsular War.