Patrick Harper
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Regimental Sergeant Major Patrick Harper is a fictional character created by Bernard Cornwell in the "Sharpe" series of novels. Harper is a large man, who was from Donegal, Ireland before joining the 95th Rifle Regiment. Harper and Richard Sharpe are enemies initially, but eventually Harper becomes Sharpe's best friend and most reliable companion.
[edit] Character
Harper is really a kind, loving man, with a particular love for birdwatching, but in battle he becomes a fierce fighter, shouting in Gaelic. His weapon of choice is the hugely powerful seven-barrelled Nock gun that Sharpe had given him as a present. Harper helped Sharpe capture the French Imperial Eagle at the Battle of Talavera de la Reina. These are also the reason that he has been risen from rifleman to sergeant and then sergeant-major.
Harper is wrongly flogged during the Sharpe's Company novel, thanks to Sharpe's bitter enemy Hakeswill. Harper and Sharpe develop a more intense bond of friendship as a result.
During their time in Spain, Harper met Isabella, whom he later married and brought to Ireland. Sharpe helped him get discharged from the army after The Battle of Toulouse, but that didn't stop him from returning to help Sharpe at Waterloo.
After the wars, Harper set up an illegal horse theft business in Dublin, which he used as an excuse to Isabella to leave for Waterloo. Harper also owns a successful pub business in Dublin. He bought it, and his other property, using his share of the money that Harper and Sharpe got from cashing in the jewels they recovered from the French baggage train at Vitoria, documented in the book Sharpe's Honour. He is considered a gentlemen and has wealth and status.
[edit] Trivia
Five years after Waterloo in Sharpe's Devil he had grown from fit to very heavy. Ironically, as Harper was not wounded throughout the Peninsular War, he is wounded for the first time in Chile while there with Sharpe attempting to locate the whereabouts of Blas Vivar, the Spaniard who rescued them in Sharpe's Rifles.
Harper is played by Daragh O'Malley in the Sharpe TV series.
