Francis Loraine Petre Francis Loraine Petre OBE ( 1852 – 1925 ) was a British civil servant in India and a military historian upon his retirement . He wrote a two - volume regimental history of the Norfolk Regiment , but is best known for his works on the Napoleonic Wars . The grandson of the 11th Baron Petre , he was educated at Oscott College and joined the Bar in 1880 . He took the civil service exam and subsequently joined the Indian Civil Service . He retired as Commissioner of Allahabad in 1900 . Subsequently , he chose a literary career , pursuing interests in the history of the Napoleonic Wars . He wrote five books on the Wars , most of which are in use a century later . His studies of " Napoleon ' s conquest of Prussia 1806 – 1807 " ( 1901 ) and " Napoleon ' s Campaign in Poland , 1806 – 1807 " ( 1901 ) were among the first such books in the English language . He also wrote several regimental histories , a study of Simon Bolivar , and a descriptive study of Colombia . World War I interrupted his literary pursuits ; he served in the Finance Branch of the Ministry of Munitions . In 1920 , Petre was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire . Family . F . Loraine Petre descended from an aristocratic English Catholic family , the House of Petre . His father , the Honorable Edmund George Petre , was born 23 June 1829 ( d . 1 September 1889 ) , in London ' s Marylebone district ; he was the son of William Petre , 11th Baron Petre , and his second wife , Emma Agnes Howard . Edmund married Marianna Jane Kerr , born in 1831 in Midlothian ( Edinburgh ) , Scotland , the daughter of the accountant and stock broker Lorraine M . Kerr , Esquire , They married 3 June 1851 , at her home at 26 India Street in Glasgow , Lanarckshire . Edmund Petre worked as a stockbroker . Petre was born at Netherley House , in Aberdeen , Scotland on 22 February 1852 , Loraine Petre ' s younger sister , Rosamund Catherine , was born in 25 August 1857 , at the High Elms , in Hampton Court ( now Hampton , London ) . She married in 1884 to William Henry Hare Hedges - White , an Irish Peer , the fourth and last Earl of Bantry . Petre maintained his connections to his illustrious family ; in 1873 , his cousin married George Forbes , 7th Earl of Granard , and he was listed as a guest . In 1887 , Petre married Maud Ellen Rawlinson , the daughter of a clergyman ; their son , Roderick L ( oraine ) , born 1888 in Indore , India ; Roderick attended school near Midsomer Norton and Stratton - on - the - Fosse . where he sang treble in the boys choir . Roderick served in the South Wales Borderers in the Galipoli campaign of World War I , and was awarded the Military Cross . Eventually he achieved the rank of major - general . A daughter , Enid , was born in 1890 , and a second daughter was born in 1894 and died the same year . Education and career . Petre was educated at Oscott College , and called to the Bar by Lincoln ' s Inn in 1873 . The next year he competed in the examinations for the Indian Civil Service , in which he was placed fourth of the top thirty . Initially he served in the North - Western Provinces , and later in Oudh . From 1885 to 1889 , he was at Hyderabad , in the Political Department . He also served in the Secretariat of the Indian Board of Revenue . Upon his retirement in 1900 , he was Commissioner of Allahabad . While serving in India , he published several articles on Indian politics and culture , and on the progress of the central states of India . In 1888 , his article on " Progress and Prospects of Native States of Central India " was published in the " Asiatic Quarterly Review . " After retirement , he maintained his interest in India Affairs : he regularly attended the meetings of the East India Society , a group of civil servants and military men who had served in the Far East and India , and of which he was a member of the governing council . In 1901 , he presented a paper , " The Indian Sectarists and their Relation to the Administration " , which was published in the Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review . In 1907 , during the civil turmoil in India , he wrote to the editor of " The Times " ( London ) to clarify the problems faced by local police forces in maintaining civil order in the Indian Provinces . Military historian . On his retirement from the Indian Civil Service , his interest in the Napoleonic Wars led him to seek out studies of the European campaigns . The lack of English language studies on the wars , particularly the campaigns of 1806 and 1807 , encouraged him to write both " Napoleon ' s Conquest of Prussia 1806 " and " Napoleon ' s campaign in Poland , 1806 – 1807 " . The latter , originally published in 1910 , has been reprinted in several additions , the most recent in 2001 by Stackpole and Greenwood Press . His " Napoleon ' s Conquest of Prussia 1806 , " first published in 1901 , entered three editions : in 1907 , by J . Lane and in 1914 ; its 1907 and subsequent editions contained an introduction by the Field Marshal Frederick Roberts , 1st Earl Roberts . Both of these campaigns , Petre surmised , were Napoleon ' s greatest achievements : never again did he organize so great a campaign , nor did his political or military power reach such heights . Similarly , his " Napoleon & the Archduke Charles ; a history of the Franco - Austrian campaign in the valley of the Danube in 1809 " reflected the dearth of English language material on the subject . For Petre , the campaign was of particular interest as the one of two campaigns in which Napoleon was opposed by arguably his most able continental opponent . In 1809 , that opponent was the Archduke Charles , Duke of Teschen ; the other campaign , in Italy 1797 , that opponent was Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser . His son Rodrick assisted with the mapmaking . The volume entered three reprints – 1916 , 1976 , 1989 — and a second edition in 1991 , reprinted in 2001 , reflected the ongoing fascination with the Napoleonic wars . Both " Napoleon ' s last campaign in Germany , 1813 " and " Napoleon at Bay 1814 , " were translated immediately into German , and both had 1970s reprints . In " Napoleon ' s Last Campaign " , Petre posits that the Emperor Napoleon abandoned the guiding principles of his previous success , which lay in his relentless pursuit of his opponent ' s main army . In the Saxon Campaign , Napoleon lost sight of his primary objectives , becoming mired in secondary achievements . Petre noted also the vast increase in sheer numbers , on both sides of the contest , and predicted that in terms of numbers , " we must wait for the wars of tomorrow to see those numbers exceeded . " World War I interrupted his work as a military historian ; he was recalled from retirement to work in the Finance office of the Munitions Ministry . On 26 March 1920 , he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire . Petre wrote a two - volume history of the Norfolk Regiment , the second volume of which was published a month before his death . In addition , he also wrote histories of the Royal Berkshire Regiment ( Royal Berks ) , the 1st Gurkha Rifles , and the " Scots Guards in the Great War 1914 – 1918 " . His regimental histories also included " The 1st , King George ' s Own , Gurkha Rifles - The Malaun Regiment , 1815 – 1921 " . Petre also wrote two books on South America , responding to the need for investors to find additional information in a convenient form in English . In it , he maintained , he simply collated information and in his tour of the country he remained on what he called " the beaten tracks " , principal cities , and the countryside . Furthermore , he maintained , he used statistical information supplied by the President of Columbia . The book includes photographs that he took himself . His second book on South America was " Simon Bolivar — El Libertador ; a life of the chief leader in the revolt against Spain in Venezuela , New Granada and Peru . "