Lieutenant General, 1st Baronet of Aliwal, G.C.B., known as Sir Harry Smith, was a notable English soldier and military commander in the British Army of the early 19th century, and was educated privately and entered the army in 1805. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, he is also particularly remembered for his role in the Battle of Aliwal (India) in 1846, and as the husband of Lady Smith. He was educated privately and entered the army in 1805. His first active service was in South America in 1806 during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Montevideo in 1807, but first came to real prominence during the Peninsular War. He served throughout these campaigns with the 95th Rifles in which he served from 1808 through to the end of the war at the Battle of Toulouse in 1814. On 7 April 1812 (the day following the storming of Badajoz) a well-born Spanish lady, whose entire property in the city had been destroyed, presented herself at the British lines seeking protection from the licence of the soldiery for herself and her sister, a child of fourteen. The latter, Juana Maria de Los Dolores de León, had but recently emerged from a convent; but notwithstanding her years she was married to Harry Smith a few days later. She accompanied him throughout the rest of the war. At the close of the war Harry Smith volunteered for service in the United States, where he was present at the Battle of Bladensburg on 24 August 1814, and witnessed the burning of the capitol at Washington; which, as he said, "horrified us coming fresh from the Duke's humane warfare in the south of France." Returning to Europe he was a brigade major at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Battles; Napoleonic Wars, War of 1812, Xhosa Wars, Gwalior campaign, First Anglo-Sikh War and the Battle of Boomplaats.