THE BATTLE OF DORKING Reminiscences of a Volunteer

George Tomkyns Chesney's novella The Battle of Dorking (1871) was written in reaction to the German army's swift invasion of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Chesney's alarmist story imagines a successful German invasion of England via the east coast town of Harwich, with the final battle inland at Dorking leading to the capitulation of the British government, and the disbanding of the Empire. Chesney's immediate goal was to alert readers to the meagre number of troops in the British Army, and the likelihood that Britain would be unable to defend herself should she need to.


George Tomkyns Chesney was a captain in the Royal Engineers and had grown concerned over the ramshackle state of Britain's armed forces. He used fiction as a device to promote his views after letters and journalism on the issue had failed to impress public opinion. The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) had just demonstrated the speed, superiority and adaptability of the Prussian Army, which meant that Chesney's depiction of a fast-moving and determined invader hit a nerve.