Excerpt from The Diary of a Cavalry Officer: In the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns, 1809-1815

He was thanked in the general orders of the day of January 22nd, 1811, and recommended for promotion in the Duke of Wellington's despatch to the Horse Guards of May 14th of the same year. In 1812 he was gazetted a Captain in the 60th Regiment, from which he exchanged back into his old regiment without leaving it. It is somewhat remarkable that, while severely wounded in four places in almost his first skirmish, he passed practically unscathed through four years' service in the Peninsula and the Waterloo campaigns, although under fire, to the best of his recollection, on nearly one hundred occasions. He received the Peninsular and Waterloo medals, with clasps for the actions of Busaco, Fuentes, Salamanca, and Vittoria.

Of his character it may be said that, simple in tastes and habits, quiet and unassuming in demeanour, yet prompt and decisive in action, of iron constitution, and an excellent rider, he was in all respects a worthy follower of the great leader under whom he served. He retired on half pay in 1821, and settling at Willington in his native county, engaged actively in the duties and pursuits of a country gentleman, as a magistrate, landlord, and sportsman. In the hunting field he became as distinguished as in the field of battle, and with his two brothers formed one of the trio sung by the Cheshire poet as "The brothers three from Dorfold sprung whom none of us could beat."

He married, in 1836, Susan, daughter of Thomas Tarleton, Esq., of Bolesworth Castle, Cheshire (by Frances, daughter of Philip Egerton, Esq., of Oulton Park), and sister of the late Admiral Sir Walter Tarleton, K.C.B., and died in 1872, in his 83rd year, leaving surviving issue four sons and two daughters. One of the former is Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Tomkinson, now in command of the 1st Royal Dragoons, and upon me, as his heir and successor, devolves the duty of editing his diary.

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