[General] Francis Rawdon Chesney

Life
1789-1872; b. Ballyhea, Co. Down; explorer and military writer; commissioned Royal Artillery 1805; received grant of £20,000 was voted by parliament to enable him to try the experiment of communicating with India by the EuphratesSurvey of the Euphrates and Tigris (1850), The State of Fire-Arms Past and Present (1852) and Narrative of Euphrates Expedition (1868). CAB ODNB DIW DIB

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Criticism
J. R. R. Adams, ‘The Early Life of Francis Rawdon Chesney’, in Field Excursions in Ulster, 3: “The Annalong District of the Mournes, County Down” (Ulster Folklore Soc. 1986), pp.16-20.

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References
Charles A. Read, The Cabinet of Irish Literature [1876-78], notes that a grant of £20,000 was voted by parliament to enable him to try the experiment of communicating with India by the Euphrates; cites Past and Present State of Firearms (1852); Russo-Turkish Campaigns of 1828-9 (1854).

Dictionary of National Biography: bio-dates 1789-1872; volunteer against Irish rebels, 1789; service in Turkey, Suez, Syria, Hongkong; published narratives of his surveys, among which he showed that the Suez canal was practicable, 1830.

Belfast Linen Hall Library, Cuttings: ‘Father of the Suez Canal’, 17.6, 34.22, 36.30-1, CB 71.140 & 136.

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Notes
Kith & Kin: Charles Cornwallis Chesney, 1826-1876; military critic; Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland (1863), and Essays in Military Biography (1874).

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