Obadiah Hakeswill

Hakeswill has known Sharpe since his days as a private in India. He's the one whose lies got Sharpe flogged, and the scars on Sharpe's back are his work. Ever since, Hakeswill keeps saying he can't die and he lives for the chance to destroy the man who rose while he stayed a sergeant. Once Sharpe becomes an officer, the grudge only grows: to Hakeswill, a soldier from the gutter has no right to give orders.

In 1812, near Badajoz, Hakeswill joins Sharpe's company and makes no secret of his grudge. He steals, lies and frames Harper until the Irishman is busted down. He also covets Teresa, Sharpe's woman, and swears revenge on her and Harper after taking a beating.

During the assault on the city, Hakeswill gets to Teresa's house first and threatens little Antonia. Sharpe and Harper arrive in time to save mother and daughter, but Hakeswill escapes and vanishes from the army. Sharpe gets a chance to finish him right there, but the moment slips away, and the sergeant who says he can't die is still alive and on the loose.

Months later, Hakeswill resurfaces as 'colonel' of a gang of deserters from several armies who have seized the village of Adrados and are holding women hostage, a French colonel's wife among them. Sharpe arrives with the ransom and recognizes him. When the British take the convent, Hakeswill flees and kills Teresa on the way out. He tries to cross over to the French but is recaptured, court-martialed and marched to a firing squad, with Sharpe watching from a distance.

Years later, in 1817, the Hakeswill name comes back to haunt Sharpe in India. Barabbas, a prisoner on the wagon train Sharpe takes over, is the sergeant's son. Sharpe distrusts him from the start and keeps him in chains, and the traitor Wormwood uses that to turn Barabbas against him. Sharpe ends up apologizing and letting the young man fight, and in the final battle it's Barabbas who arrives with the Indian cavalry. The son doesn't repeat the father.

Pete Postlethwaite played Hakeswill in Sharpe's Company and Sharpe's Enemy. In the books, Hakeswill is there from the India novels about young Sharpe.