Allen Davenport of the Windsor Foresters; fencible trooper and political activist

Abstract

Allen Davenport (1775-146) was a key activist of most radical working class movements of the early 19th century. Between 1794 and 1800 he served as a fencible (home service) cavalryman in the British army of the French Revolutionary Wars.

He wrote a detailed memoir of his life in 1845. This is mainly about his political career but the first section detailed his army service. No other rank and file memoirs of service in the fencibles exist. The article has a summary of his political career and annotated passages from his memoirs about his military career, outlining how this influenced his politics.