About George Edwardson

After his successful year on Warlord, Captain John Wharton RN is given command of Courageous, a 38-gun frigate, bound for the Mediterranean.

His ship is directed to the Adriatic to gather intelligence about the French military and naval activities in Venice which is followed by a desperate ship-to-ship action with an enemy frigate.

War breaks out with the Ottoman Empire and ‘Tiger’ Wharton sails for the east to discover the strength of the Turkish fleet and prey on their merchant ships.

Midshipman Johnnie Wharton has no idea when he joins HMS St George as a 12-year-old that he is soon to take part in some of the greatest sea battles of Nelson’s Royal Navy.
Life aboard his next ship HMS Gibraltar is tough for the youngster and he and the other officers face disgrace as his Captain blunders badly at the Battle of the Glorious First of June.
Posted next to HMS Monarch, the 74-gun third rate is sent to the West Indies and survives a monstrous hurricane with the ship-of-the-line nearly wrecked.
Back in home waters, Wharton leaves Monarch and is sent to the fast brig-sloop Magpie, commanded by the pugnacious Captain Sotherton to assist in the British blockade of the French coast.
Sea fights with French ships off Brittany follow and then the capture of a valuable Dutch merchantman. Wharton’s share of the prize money from the sale of the Dutch ship’s cargo of wine and brandy help smooth the career ahead in the Royal Navy for this son of a Devon doctor.
Finally, Johnnie Wharton plays a key role in landing one of Prime Minister William Pitt’s spies on mainland France and the rescue of another with vital information about Napoleon’s plans to invade and capture Egypt to block Britain’s route to India.

Majestic is a novel set in the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars as the Royal Navy fights the French for supremacy across the oceans of the world. It continues the career of Midshipman Johnnie Wharton in both great men-of-war and nimble brig-sloops.
Wharton is poised for promotion, hastened by the terrible toll suffered by HMS Majestic at Admiral Nelson’s great triumph at the Battle of the Nile. Wounded by an exploding cannon, he recovers to take command of a battery of guns in the decisive battle off Egypt’s Aboukir Bay.
While the battered Majestic awaits new masts and work to repair her hull, alongside many other of Nelson’s victorious ships at anchor off Naples, Wharton is loaned by his captain to a fast brig, HMS Swallow, which acts as the ‘eyes and ears’ of Admiral Duckworth’s small fleet as Britain seeks to re-conquer Menorca from the Spaniards.
Soon promoted to Acting Lieutenant, Wharton becomes one of Swallow’s key officers as they provide an early warning to Duckworth of any Spanish counterattack while seeking prizes along the way.
Johnnie Wharton learns more aboard Swallow about ship to ship battles than he ever could aboard Majestic, which prepares him for the great sea battles to come.

The freshly promoted Lieutenant Johnnie Wharton RN, now recovered from the horrors of the Battle of the Nile, is ordered to Plymouth to join the Royal Navy’s newest battleship HMS Ajax as second lieutenant.
The endless war at sea continues with the British naval blockade of all French ports and Wharton seems destined to spend the next year or so sailing back and forth opposite Brittany and the Bay of Biscay.
A surprise secondment to the fast brig-sloop HMS Cynthia, captained by the buccaneering Scotsman Rory Burns, leads to the capture of with a French schooner and, probably, more Prize Money. Then Burns and Wharton are ordered to scout for the attack on the Dutch fleet at anchor at Den Helder and De Vlieter in the Zuider Zee.
Napoleon and his Grand Armee’s invasion of Egypt has put Britain’s route to India in peril and Wharton plays a key role in the mass army and navy landings near Alexandria as an aide to Admiral Lord Keith and Captain Alexander Cochrane.
Peace talks between France and Britain at the end of 1801 cause concern for the Royal Navy with many officers and men facing being beached with half-pay or worse, as much of the fleet could be laid-up. Johnnie Wharton fears for the end of his naval career.

France and Britain are finally at peace and many of the ships in the Royal Navy’s vast fleet are laid up. In the circumstances, Lieutenant John Wharton RN is amazed to be able to find the position of first lieutenant on the venerable but fast sloop HMS Camilla in Portsmouth.
By the autumn of 1802, the big question was how long the Treaty of Amiens would last and Britain’s seemingly endless war with the Napoleon’s France start again.
Convoy duty to Newfoundland and Canada follow with a vital diplomatic mission to Washington DC to try to avert another war with the United States. In company with his friend master gunner Toby Smeeton, the West Indies are the next destination with many adventures on the way.
Wharton is next posted first lieutenant of the grand 74-gun third rate HMS Goliath, but not before Wharton renews his friendship with the striking heiress Lady Penelope Marwood and her influential father Lord Paignton.
With the Treaty breaking down, Goliath is ordered to patrol between Jamaica and Haiti to disrupt the French navy and the prospect of valuable prizes soon becomes a reality.

In 1804, Captain John Wharton RN takes command of HMS Leopard, his first as captain as the war with France continues for yet another year. A 38-gun frigate, Leopard is the newest ship in the Royal Navy, straight off the slipway at Woolwich.

His first mission is to the Mediterranean where he is given a very challenging task, followed by action at the blockade of Toulon, leading to a career changing situation at the Admiralty and a mission to the Baltic.

In between times, he renews his friendship with Lord Paignton and his daughter Penelope at their Silcombe Park estate near Exmoor.

Captain John Wharton RN is called back to duty on the orders of Rear Admiral Cochrane as captain of the three-deck, 74-gun battleship HMS Warlord.

Warlord is bound for the West Indies to seek and destroy the French naval squadrons which escaped from Brest shortly after Nelson’s great victory at Trafalgar.

Now termed ‘Tiger’ Wharton by the London newspapers for sinking the French frigate Tigre in the Mediterranean, his ship plays a key role in attacking the French squadrons.

Next, Warlord sails for South Africa, India and the Bay of Bengal.

The Sea Officer – Set Course for Trafalgar is a novel based on the extraordinary true naval career of Irish sailor Amos Freeman Westropp, during the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars.
He served in Nelson’s Royal Navy for over 30 years in a dozen ships and fought in some of the great sea battles of the time against the French, Dutch and Spanish fleets.
All the events portrayed in the book took place and the ships and naval officers mentioned were real, including Westropp’s meetings and time spent with the leading naval leaders of his time, including Admiral Lord Nelson and the French Commander-in-Chief at the Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Villeneuve.

The Sea Officer – Clear for Action continues the extraordinary true story of the naval career of the Irish sailor Amos Freeman Westropp, during the later stages of the Napoleonic Wars.
Clear for Action covers Westropp’s adventures from Ireland to Denmark, France, the South Atlantic, the West Indies and West Africa. Prize money was the only way a sea officer could acquire wealth and his many captures of enemy ships certainly ensured that.
All the events portrayed in the novel took place and the ships and naval officers mentioned are real, including his meetings with the Duke of Wellington and the Emperor Napoleon.

Saffron and Green follows the adventures of three Yorkshire brothers, who fought as soldiers in the violent Tudor wars in Scotland, France and Ireland for King Edward, Queen Mary and then Queen Elizabeth. All the while, their military footsteps are dogged by the shadowy Gallowglass, a Scots-Irish mercenary soldier.

All the main characters in the book, with two exceptions, were real people and their stories follow what we know of their actual personal histories.

Disclaimer: This book is a story based on accounts of real events, some of which readers may find upsetting or offensive. It also contains scenes of a sexual nature. The views and opinions expressed by characters in this book do not necessarily reflect the position of the author.

Doublecross continues the adventures of two Yorkshire brothers, who fought in the violent Tudor wars across Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. All the while, their military footsteps are dogged by the shadowy Gallowglass, a Scots-Irish mercenary soldier.

All the main characters in the book, with one exception, were real people and their stories follow what we know of their actual personal histories.

Disclaimer: This book is a story based on accounts of real events, some of which readers may find upsetting or offensive. It also contains scenes of a sexual nature. The views and opinions expressed by characters in this book do not necessarily reflect the position of the author.

The Honeysucker is a novel based on the true story of the extraordinary military career of the Irish soldier John Westropp as he fought his way across Portugal and Spain against the French in the Peninsula War.
Part of the Duke of Wellington’s army, he was in some of the greatest battles of the war – Salamanca, Vitoria and the Pyrenees – suffered heat, cold and wounds and near starvation during the swift advances and draining retreats.
With the 58th Regiment of Foot – called The Honeysuckers – Westropp next goes to America to fight in the War of 1812 and then back to Europe and to Paris for the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Returning to Cork City at the end of the French Wars, he continues as a half-pay officer with Wellington’s 95th Rifles while developing a successful commercial career and was elected Mayor of Cork in 1838 and became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 58th Foot in 1841.

‘O’er the Hills and O’er the Main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain
King George commands and we’ll obey
And go over the Hills and Far Away
John Tams

The Cork Captain follows the career of the fighting soldier Michael Roberts Westropp through turbulent times in Ireland, the West Indies and the start of the American War of Independence.
He turns his back on a life in the counting house of his father’s business in Cork and enlists as an ensign in the 18th Regiment of Foot and is soon faced with the Whiteboys rebellion in the West of Ireland. Ensign Westropp is next posted to the West Indies to secure the valuable islands from French attack while there is unease from slave revolts and the perils of yellow fever decimating the ranks of his new regiment the 70th Foot.
The American colonies are in revolt, and he finds himself in Boston. Massachusetts with the 63rd Foot under siege from George Washington’s colonial troops.
Home in Cork, Westropp is called on to confront Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen’s 1798 rebellion. The uprising tests the military, civil and commercial life of the City, where he hopes rise to the highest levels of commerce and Government.

In 1616, a rich orphan is sent far away to school, where he is seduced by an older woman as part of a plot by her family to steal his fortune. The boy goes to the highest court in the land seeking to clear his name and save his inheritance. It causes a national scandal.

King Charles 1 is dead and still the English Civil War blights parts of England.
Cornet Mountifort Westropp of Colonel Twisleton’s Regiment of Horse is called upon again, this time to quell the Leveller Mutinies of 1649.
The Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell has decided to punish the Catholics and Royalists in Ireland for their atrocities against the English Protestant settlers during the 1641 uprising. Westropp is part of a great invading New Model Army which lands in Dublin to secure Munster for Parliament as a first step to subdue the whole island.
The campaign includes capturing Drogheda and Wexford before the march on Limerick.
Westropp returns to life in the West of Ireland, initially suppressing the remnants of the Royalist and Confederation Irish around the River Shannon.
As Comptroller of the Port of Limerick, his future looks assured – until the armies of the Duke of York and King William meet on the banks of the River Boyne. Will his life’s work as a soldier and administrator be for nought?