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This book is an account of the Irish people who were deleted from late eighteenth and nineteenth century history. During that period England relied heavily on the Irish to staff the needs of the growing empire. At that time the option to work for the East India Company was a way of escaping the worsening poverty of Ireland. For the upper and middle classes, a commission in the Bengal Army could mean easy money followed by an early retirement. For the Irish peasant serving as a soldier it meant the hope of a full stomach and the prospect of adventure in a warm climate away from the cold rain.

The missionaries saw the Empire as an opportunity to spread Christianity and the entrepeneurs quick to see a business opportunity opened trading posts. Then there were the adventurers who worked as mercenaries for the Indian princes or had their own private armies. Such as the notorious George Thomas, a deserter from the Royal Navy known as the Raja of Tipperary who won the love of the Begum Sumru but had to run for his life when her other lovers plotted against him.

The British role in the Empire is well-documented but very little known about the major part played by ordinary Irish men and women in service to the Raj whose names ar rapidly disappearing from history. Although few of their graves remain, it has been possible to compile the epitpahs and biographies from written sources for many of these remarkable men and women whose deeds have vanished into the past.