Obadiah Hakeswill

Background: Evil by nature and reputation, Obadiah Hakeswill embodies all that has ever been wrong or corrupt in the British army. It was he that set Sharpe up for his death sentence of two thousand lashes in 1799. Fortunately Sir Arthur intervened after 200, yet Hakeswill and has been trying to get even with Sharpe ever since.

At twelve years old he was tried and hanged for a trumped-up theft (The real crime had been the rape of the local vicar’s daughter), but by some miracle he survived with nothing more than a rope burn around his neck. Hated and cast out by his family, soon after his ‘execution’ he went and joined the army and has been there ever since, making the lives of all that serve under him a misery. Now roughly forty-five years old he is convinced that he cannot die and that he is protected by the spirit of his dead mother; which could possibly be true, considering that many have tried to kill him, but each time Obadiah survives…

A liar, cheat, thief, toady, murderer and rapist (to name but a few of his crimes), there are only two people in this world whom he fears; Sir Arthur Wellesley and Richard Sharpe. Neither have ever shown the least sign of being intimidated by the sergeant, which is a situation Hakeswill has tried to rectify many times. And failed.

His sanity is questionable, but only because nobody has ever dared to hazard one way or another; not even Hakeswill. But with his violent temper, childish blue eyes and his lumpy, twitching face it is a fairly safe bet that he is not on an even keel – in fact it’s probably the safest bet with Hakeswill…