Thomas Hardy

The Trumpet-Major Thomas Hardy

The Trumpet-Major has a relatively simple plot (Millgate 193). It tells about a woman courted by three competing suitors against the backdrop of the anticipated landing of Napoleon's troops in Britain. The novel skilfully mingles historical facts and fiction. Hardy introduces King George III and his family, who stayed in Weymouth during the Napoleonic Wars, as well as his alleged ancestor Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy (later Vice Admiral), who served under Admiral Horatio Nelson and commanded the HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The fictional plot of the novel focuses on Anne Garland, a lovely country girl, who lives quietly with her impoverished widowed mother in a part of Overcombe Millhouse, which belongs to the miller Loveday, until a regiment of Royal dragoons sets up camp near the village and prepares to defend the coast from the expected invasion of Napoleon's fleet. She becomes attracted by one of the dragoons, John Loveday, one of the miller's sons and a gallant trumpet-major. John falls in love with Anne but soon finds out that she has two more suitors: his jolly and fickle brother Bob, who was Anne's childhood sweetheart, now a merchant navy captain and a two-timing womaniser, and Festus Derriman, the selfish and cowardly nephew of a local squire. Eventually, Bob Loveday, who persuades Captain Hardy to take him on board the Victory, returns safely from the Battle of Trafalgar, captivates Anne's heart and they are married. His brother John, the trumpet major, will die in one of the bloody battlefields of Spain in the service of the king and country.