History

In Frederick Marryat’s 1834 novel Jacob Faithful, Old Tom is a double-amputee naval veteran who lost his legs fighting in in the battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars. Though a fictional character, there were many men like Old Tom who populated the streets of Victorian London. These were a great source of inspiration for writers, including Charles Dickens, who included many wooden leg users in his works. For more on Old Tom and how depictions such as his imagined neurological difficulties arising from limb loss, see chapter 2 of Ryan Sweet’s free 2022 book Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.

Backstory

A retired Navy veteran, who lost his leg fighting in the battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars.
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