“My Lord, if I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence which surrounds me, I should be debarred from the serious business of campaigning … So long as I retain an independent position, I shall see no officer under my command is debarred by attending to the futile drivelling of mere quill‐driving from attending to his first duty, which is and always has been to train the private men under his command that they may without question beat any force opposed to them in the field.”

The Duke of Wellington, to the Secretary of State for War during the Peninsular Campaign