Name: William Anthony Hood (Major, ret.)
Gender: Male
Age: 28
Height:6'2"
Weight: 185 lbs
Hair: Dark brown, just getting specks of grey
Eyes: Hazel
Appearance: Tall and compact; strong chin and aquiline nose; bright, haunted eyes; noticeable scars on cheek, forehead and hands, hair worn long and in ponytail; walks with a limp.
Personality: Dark, brooding, melancholic, honorable, loner

History: Younger brother of Henry Hood, 2nd Viscount Hood, and youngest son of Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, of Whitley in the County of Warwick.  Disgraced the family by attempting to elope with his childhood sweetheart, Mary Wholters, a parson's daughter, at 17; was packed off into the Army by his father, who purchased his commission as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays); by 1808 he had been made Captain and led a troop during the Peninsula War, serving at the Battle of Roliça (17 August 1808)and the Battle of Vimeiro (August 21, 1808, where he received his first wounds in support of Colonel Taylor's wild charge of the 20th Light Dragoons against a vastly superior French cavalry division).

Following his recuperation, he then fought at the disastrous Battle of Corunna (16 January 1809), where he was again wounded and also suffered from frostbite and dysentery. Following a lengthy, year-long recuperation in London, during which he'd threatened retirement, he accepted (reluctantly) the promotion to Major in the Guards 02 February, 1810.

During the French Third invasion of Portugal, he served at the Battle of the Côa (July 24, 1810), and the wildly successful Battle of Bussaco (27 September 1810), in which he was awarded the Army's Small Gold Medal for his actions to help repulse the French VI Corps across the Mourna Road.

Unfortunately, his next actions were at the disastrous Battle of Fuengirola (October 15, 1810), in which he was again wounded and this time captured by Polish infantry and turned over to the French. He spent the next two years in a French prisoner of war camp, finally gaining his release 15 January, 1813.

Upon returning to England, Hood retired from active service; broody and withdrawn, and scarred from war and still pining from his earlier lost love, Hood has retired to the English countryside, where he hopes to purchase a small estate and live out the rest of his years in peace away from the machinations of his family.

Hobbies: Painting, reading, riding, birdwatching.
Likes: Quiet, country gardens, Spanish wine, long walks, music
Dislikes: Loud noises, his family, the Army, War, politics

Love Interest(if any): Currently Miss Anna Morgan

Timeline:

1785: Born
1800: Death of William's younger brother Thomas.
1802: William attempts to elope with his sweetheart Mary Wholters and is apprehended at Dover.
1803: William joins 2nd Dragoon Guards as a Lieutenant (purchased commission).
1804: Henry Hood, William's older brother, named 2nd Viscount Hood.
1805: Mary moves to India with her new husband.
1808: William attains rank of Captain & fights in Peninsula War.
1809: William is badly wounded in the Battle of Corunna (16 January); spends the year in hospital in London.
1810: A recuperated William reluctantly accepts a purchased commission as Major (2 February).
1810: William is awarded the Army's Small Gold Medal for his actions at the Battle of Bussaco (27 September).
1810: William is injured and captured at the Battle of Fuengirola (15, October)
1813: After serving 2 1/2 years in a POW camp in France, William returns to London and retire from the Army (15, March) by selling his commission.


***NB: From 1796 until his death in 1816, Samuel Hood (William's father, and former Lord Admiral Hood) served as Governor of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich.  A peerage of Great Britain was conferred on his wife as Baroness Hood of Catherington in 1795, and he was himself created Viscount Hood of Whitley in 1796.  His history can be found here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/...idual.php?pid=I18948