Obadiah Hakeswill

Obadiah Hakeswill is a fictional British Sergeant who appears in several of the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell.

Early life

Hakeswill's home town and county are never explicitly mentioned in the books but as a boy he assaulted the daughter of his parson and was, to keep the girl's honour intact, charged with sheep theft and sentenced to death by hanging. On the day of his execution, the executioner paid little attention to the young boy and was content to make the other victims suffer. A severe rainstorm broke out allowing Hakeswill's mother to send her brother to cut the boy from the scaffold. Obadiah's uncle told him to run off and never look back. Having survived his execution Hakeswill found an army recruiting party and enlisted as a drummer boy in the 33rd Regiment of Foot. Since the execution Obadiah always held his mother in high esteem. Although he never sees his mother after his escape, he appeals to her in difficult situations. It may be deduced that he considers all mothers to be sacred, since, in "Sharpe's Enemy", he orders his men not to touch his hostage Josephina la Lacosta when he learns that she was in Adrados to pray for her mother.

Since the day of his escape from the gallows, he begins to suffer from uncontrollable face spasms, and never stops twitching until his well-deserved death at the rifle barrel of Richard Sharpe.

Army career

Hakeswill quickly rose through the lower ranks of the British Army, mainly through co-operating with the foppish officers' every wish and by manipulating his fellow soldiers. Soon he was a Sergeant and enlisted a young Richard Sharpe to the 33rd. Serving in Flanders and then India, Hakeswill's dislike for Sharpe intensifies when Sharpe becomes first a Sergeant and then an officer. Hakeswill has a reputation for being indestructible, surviving a blast of grapeshot that kills the files of men directly behind him and several attempts to murder him by Sharpe (in "Sharpe's Tiger" Sharpe locks him in a cage with a tiger, in "Sharpe's Triumph" Sharpe orders an elephant to stand on him, and in "Sharpe's Fortress" Sharpe forces him into a snake pit). Hakeswill himself believes his mother is protecting him from death - leading to his reverence not only for her but for mothers in general - stating that "mothers are sacred". Despite the facade of being the perfect soldier he puts on for officers, Hakeswill's aim in life is solely for his own benefit and in "Sharpe's Tiger", "Sharpe's Triumph" and "Sharpe's Fortress" Hakeswill (respectively) betrays Sharpe's mission to save his own life, pilfers army supplies and deserts from the army, later claiming he was a prisoner.

Hakeswill surfaces again in "Sharpe's Company" as a Sergeant in the new draft of the South Essex Regiment. He quickly strips Sharpe's riflemen of their rifles and green jackets, then gets Sergeant Patrick Harper flogged and demoted for a theft he himself committed. Hakeswill is also obsessed with Teresa Moreno, Sharpe's soon to be wife, and during the sack of Badajoz he attempts to rape Teresa and kills Captain Robert Knowles before Sharpe rescues his wife and child. After this Hakeswill deserts again and in "Sharpe's Enemy" joins Marshal Pot-au-Feu's band of cross-national deserters. When they kidnap two English and two French ladies he meets the now Major Sharpe who defeats the deserters and captures Hakeswill. However in the confusion of battle against the French, he escapes and tries to join them but not before he shoots and kills Teresa. He is captured by Colonel Alexandre Dubreton who, having a great deal of respect for Sharpe, hands him over to the Major. Hakeswill at the close of the book is executed by firing squad and Sharpe administers the coup de grâce with his rifle.

Sharpe TV Series

In the Carlton TV Series, Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill was portrayed by actor Pete Postlethwaite. Author Bernard Cornwell said he was the character he most regretted killing off - and even jokingly suggested that some of the filmakers wanted to have a scene with Hakeswill rising from the grave.