The young ensign
In 1779, just two years after his father's death, Ferdinand, a youth of nineteen, was killed at the defence of Bâton Rouge, on the Mississippi. Isaac was then ten years old, a strong and lusty youth. At that age he was sent to school, for a short time to Southampton, and afterwards under the care of a French pastor in Rotterdam. While in Guernsey he attended Queen Elizabeth's school, where the Rev. C. Crispin was headmaster. But school life and academical distinction were not to be his portion. At the early age of fifteen he followed the example of his brothers, and on March 2nd, 1785, he obtained a commission, by purchase, in the 8th Regiment, in which his eldest brother had just purchased a captaincy, after ten years' service in America. Though young in years he even then showed proofs of that indomitable will which so distinguished him in after life. Feeling the defects of his education he determined to devote his leisure to study, and often the young ensign would, in spite of jeers, turn from his gay comrades to pass his time among his books, with his door locked to prevent intrusion. Not that he was by any means a prig, for, trained to athletic sports from his earliest years, Isaac Brock had the reputation of being the best boxer and the boldest swimmer among his competitors at school and on the island.
When he entered the army it was at a time of peace, when England was recovering from her long and disastrous American war, and the French Revolution with all its horrors had not yet convulsed Europe. It was well for the young soldier that peaceful garrison duty at home was his lot for a few years. There was plenty of work in store for him abroad. In 1790 he purchased his lieutenancy and for a time was quartered in Guernsey and the neighbouring island of Jersey.
At the same time, though not in the same regiment, there was quartered with him Mr. Francis Gore, exactly of his own age, who had entered the army about the same time, and who was destined in after years to be associated with him in Canada.
In 1791, having raised an independent company, Isaac Brock was gazetted as captain and exchanged into the 49th, then ordered on foreign service in the West Indies. He was now no longer a stripling but a man of twenty-two, of commanding stature, very erect, of a strong athletic build, with a frank open countenance and very winning manners. Though of a very gentle disposition he yet possessed that quickness of decision and firmness in peril which on many trying occasions during his military career proved most useful qualities. From 1791 to 1793 he was quartered in Barbadoes and Jamaica.
During those years, though still at peace, England had spent three millions in increasing her navy, and was, therefore, well prepared to hold her supremacy on the sea.
In 1793 the war that the great minister, Pitt, had vainly tried to avert, broke out, and from that time until the peace of Amiens in 1801, England was engaged in a desperate struggle with her hereditary foe led by the consummate genius of Napoleon.[[4]] On December 1st, 1793, the French Convention declared war on Great Britain and Holland. Pitt thought that the war would be brief, but he had miscalculated the power and resources of the enemy, and for more than seven years it raged without intermission.
Service in West Indies
Service in the West Indies had proved disastrous to Brock, for he fell ill of a fever there which nearly cost him his life, and to which his young cousin succumbed. Through this illness Brock was most tenderly and skilfully nursed by his servant Dobson, who followed his fortunes and was his faithful friend throughout his life. On his recovery, Captain Brock was ordered home on sick leave, and the healing salt breezes of his native island soon restored him to health. In September, 1794, it was the intention of the royal court of Guernsey to raise a local regiment for the defence of the island and the majority in it was offered to Captain Brock, then on leave. He accepted conditionally, but the appointment which would have changed his whole career fell through, as the intention of the government was not carried out.
He was then employed in the recruiting service in England, and on June 24th, 1795, he purchased a majority in his own regiment. That year his mother died. Two years later, at the early age of twenty-eight, he became senior lieutenant-colonel of the 49th. His predecessor had been obliged to sell out on account of some mismanagement, and had left the regiment in a most disorganized state requiring a firm hand to bring it under control.