Peter D'Alembord is a supporting character in the Bernard Cornwell Sharpe novels and a minor character in the television adaptation of Sharpe's Honour.
He was portrayed, uncredited, by Edward Atterton.
Biography[]
Novels[]
Captain Peter D'Alembord came from a privileged background, having a servant and an expensive horse, but was involved in a scandal where he accidentally killed a man in a duel over a woman who went back to her husband. As a result, he took a commission with the South Essex, being given command of the light company formerly commanded by Major Richard Sharpe before his promotion. When Sharpe was challenged to a duel by the Spanish nobleman La Marques de Casares el Grande y Melida Sabadda, D'Alembord insisted on accompanying him as his second, but also sent his lieutenant, Harry Price, to fetch the battalion commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Leroy, in order to break up the duel. He saw action for the first time at Vitoria, where he was reunited with Sharpe, who had been believed dead.
On hearing the South Essex was to be disbanded because of a lack of recruits, Sharpe took D'Alembord with him to England to investigate the regiment's second battalion, along with Price and Sergeant Major Patrick Harper. D'Alembord assisted Sharpe in taking over the illegal Foulness training camp where men were being trained in order to be sold to other regiments, being given temporary command of one of the companies of trained men Sharpe formed from the recruits to take back to Spain. He took part in Sharpe's action against a French convoy that Christmas, negotiating the French surrender before Sharpe let his old friend Colonel Gudin "escape" with a small number of men.
In the aftermath of Toulouse, D'Alembord was on gate duty and managed to smuggle Sharpe, Harper and Captain William Frederickson out of the city when they were accused of stealing the Emperor's treasure. When the South Essex, now known as the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, were sent back to Chelmsford, D'Alembord took leave to contact Sharpe's wife Jane for help but quickly learned she was having an affair with Lord John Rossendale.
D'Alembord became engaged to Anne Nickerson and made plans to sell his commission and manage one of her father's farms. However, when Napoleon returned from Elba, D'Alembord's new commander Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Ford convinced him to stay for the Waterloo campaign, telling him that he would be senior captain and first in line for a promotion to major and thus a bigger commission to sell. D'Alembord took Ford's invitation to the Duchess of Richmond's ball where he was reunited with Sharpe's new partner Lucille Castineau. When the Dowager Countess of Mauberges attempted to criticise him for fighting for the British despite having a French name, he retorted that his ancestors were Huguenots and not welcome in France. He received his promotion when Major Micklewhite was killed at Quatres Bras but was horrified by Ford's indecisiveness in the face of a cavalry charge, which led to Lieutenant-Colonel Sharpe having to order the battalion to safety and needless deaths.
D'Alembord supervised skirmishers at Waterloo, telling Sharpe that he considered the French leadership evil and in need of being destroyed, after the way his ancestors were persecuted, the innocents slaughtered in the revolution and their current attempts at conquest. Embarrassed at the attitude, he asked Sharpe not to tell Lucille, who he liked, and accepted that the ordinary people of both their countries were mistreated by their leaders. He was shot in the leg and taken to a surgeon but insisted on returning to the field, where the wound continued to bleed. With Ford having fallen to pieces and the other major, Edwin Vine, having been killed, D'Alembord attempted to take command of the battalion in the face of a charge by the Imperial Guard but collapsed from his wound, leaving Sharpe to take charge again. D'Alembord had his leg amputated but recovered, despite having feared he was fated to die when at his happiest. Sharpe later agreed to D'Alembord succeeding him as the battalion's colonel.
Television[]
Captain D'Alembord accompanied Major Sharpe and Sergeant Harper to their meeting with La Marques, and prevented Harper and the rest of the Chosen Men from intervening when Sharpe was accused of La Marques' murder, although he called it a waste when Sharpe was apparently hanged. He later stumbled across the Chosen Men delivering Harper's son after his girlfriend Ramona went into labour, backing off and awkwardly telling them to carry on. He was reunited with the still alive Sharpe at Vitoria when the major returned to rally the troops.