In the Service of His Korean Majesty is based on the papers of William Nelson Lovatt, the British-American commissioner of customs in Pusan, Korea, who served between 1883 and 1886. Lovatt came to Korea recommended by P. G. von Möllendorff, newly appointed foreign advisor to Kojong, king of Korea. Putting Western advisors in the Korean royal court and setting up a customs service along the lines of China's Imperial Maritime Customs Service (IMCS) was Li Hongzhang's way of counteracting the Japanese influence in Korea that had been growing ever since the Kanghwa Treaty of 1876. Fearful of losing hegemony in Korea, Li Hongzhang sought to draw international interest to the peninsula and to bolster the Koreans' own ability to fend off Japanese imperial intentions. Thus, von Möllendorff found himself in a position to witness events in the royal court, and Lovatt was able to watch the rapid rise of Japanese influence in Korea during the years leading up to the Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin) in 1885 and the Sino-Japanese War of the mid-1890s. They watched as the dice were being cast for the ultimate end of Chinese tributary relations with Korea and, ultimately, Korea's own loss of independence to Japan.

The Korean Customs Service, staffed by former Western officers of the IMCS in China, was established in three newly opened ports: Chemulp'o (Inch’ŏn), Wŏnsan, and Pusan (Busan). Lovatt was one of the foreign commissioners charged with ensuring the honest payment and collection of revenue from trade, as well as the development of the ports as safe places for international shipping.

Two major upheavals punctuated the beginning and end of Lovatt's time in Korea: the soldiers' revolt of 1882 and the failed progressive (and pro-Japanese) coup of December 1884. Both of these were waystations along the way to ending Chinese suzerainty over Korea and the Japanese takeover of 1905–10. The 1884 “Kapsin Coup” plotters were routed by a Chinese force that intervened under the command of Yuan Shikai, touching off a confrontation between China and Japan. As the crisis cooled, Li Hongzhang was forced to make concessions to Japan in the April 1885 Treaty of Tientsin. Japan and China essentially agreed to make Korea a co-protectorate. Japanese advisors and military units returned to the peninsula, warily watching the Chinese who remained under Yuan Shikai, whom Li appointed to serve as China's “Resident General.” The Korean Customs Service was annexed by the Chinese Customs as a branch, and Lovatt and the other foreign commissioners serving the Korean king were replaced with commissioners directly under Sir Robert Hart, head of the IMCS in Peking (Beijing).

The historical context of Lovatt's Korean service is well-documented in many other sources. However, the uniqueness of this volume lies in its detailed account of life in Pusan at a time when Korea was turning the corner from being a “hermit kingdom” to a nation caught in the coils of foreign imperialism. Especially valuable is the detail that Wayne Patterson provides about Pusan, a hybrid city of about 2,000 Japanese traders and fishermen and a separate village of miscellaneous Koreans. Lovatt and his family lived in the Japanese quarter and experienced expat life surrounded by Japanese. His associates were Japanese businessmen and officials. His family lived Japanese-style, and his young daughter's playmates were Japanese. Then as now, Pusan has had the special quality of feeling near to Japan. Fronting on the sea, communicating easily with Tsushima, Hakata, and Shimonoseki, Pusan has always served as Korea's gateway to Japan. Patterson's elaboration of how this seemed at the time is a valuable descriptive point.

The book's other contribution to historical literature is its window into the workings of the IMCS as an unofficial diplomatic lever available for the Chinese to use in Korea. In the events surrounding the appointment and then the removal of Lovatt, one learns much about the workings of the Chinese and Korean customs services and their role in the international politics of northeast Asia. The Lovatt papers are a rich trove of detail regarding daily conditions in Korea and the choices and circumstances faced by foreign officials who took on the lonely and often dangerous assignments associated with Western imperialism in the East.

In the Service of His Korean Majesty is well written and richly documented. The errors are rare—for example, “Chefoo” is not Qufu (p. 28), but Yantai. It enriches the growing collection of biographical studies that promote studies of Korea's place in an international environment that was undergoing revolutionary change.