Frederick Gustavus Burnaby
Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (born March 3, 1842 in Bedford , † January 17, 1885 in Abu Klea , Sudan ) was a British military, traveler and writer.
Life
Burnaby was born in Bedford on March 3, 1842, to a minister, and trained at Bedford Grammar School and Harrow School . Later he also received private lessons in Germany . He spoke French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian fluently and had a knowledge of Turkish and Arabic.
At the age of 16 Burnaby passed the entrance examination into the army in 1859 and entered a cavalry regiment as a cornet . Inclusion was through purchase (1200 pounds sterling). He traveled to Central and South America at a young age. In 1868 he reported for Vanity Fair from Spain and Tangier . In 1870 he traveled to Odessa via Saint Petersburg . 1874 was for the Times as war correspondent in the Third Carlist War . At the end of the year, the Times sent him to Sudan where he accompanied Charles George Gordon on his expedition up the Nile to the Gondokoro area .
He made his next trip from November 30, 1879 to Khiva , which he reached with frostbite. The next destination was Bukhara . Burnaby was called back by a telegram from the Commander in Chief of the British Army, the Duke of Cambridge . On his return he wrote the book A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia which was a great success and eleven times in a year launched was.
In 1876 he traveled for five months in Asia Minor and visited among others: Skutari , Angora , Tokat , Sivas , Erzincan , Erzurum , Van , Choy , Doğubeyazıt , Kars , Ardahan and Batum . He also wrote a book about this trip, On Horseback Through Asia Minor , which, against the backdrop of the Great Game, was strongly anti-Russian in color.
When the Russo-Ottoman War broke out, he went to Asia Minor as an observer.
In 1879 he married Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed , an eighteen-year-old orphan , daughter of an Irish nobleman, who later became known as a mountaineer and with whom he had a son (Harry, born 1880). In the general election of 1880 he ran as a candidate for Birmingham , but lost.
Burnaby was an advocate of the military use of balloon flights and took a trip across the English Channel himself on March 23, 1882 . He was also a board member of the Royal Aeronautical Society .
After he was not allowed to participate in the Anglo-Egyptian War , to his disappointment, he went, without exemption, to Sudan on January 10, 1884, where the Mahdi uprising had broken out in 1881 . Since all available Egyptian army units were destroyed in the battle of Sheican and the British government was not ready to get involved, the Egyptian gendarmerie under General Valentine Baker was sent to Sawakin on the Red Sea . Burnaby took part in this campaign as Baker's intelligence officer. He was wounded in the First Battle of El Teb .
Despite this wound, he took part in the Gordon Relief Expedition . In December 1884 he marched with the Camel Corps across the desert towards Khartoum . On January 17, 1885 Burnaby commanded in the Battle of Abu Klea a portion of the squares . He was fatally hit in the neck by a spear.
Promotions
- 1859 ensign
- 1861 lieutenant
- 1866 captain
- 1879 major
- 1880 Lieutenant Colonel
Fonts
- A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia ISBN 978-0192880505
- On Horseback Through Asia Minor ISBN 978-0192825001
literature
- Peter Hopkirk : The Great Game. On Secret Service in High Asia . John Murray, London 1990, ISBN 0-7195-4727-X .
- John Andrew Hamilton: Burnaby, Frederick Gustavus . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 7: Brown - Burthogge. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1886, pp. 380 - 382 (English).
- Roger T. Stearn: Burnaby Frederick Gustavus . In: Oxford dictionary of national biography. From the earliest times to the year 2000. Edited by HCG Matthew and Brian Harrison. Volume 8. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2004, ISBN 0-19-861358-X ; Pp. 886-889.
- Julian Barnes : Levels of Life 2013, stages of life, German by Gertraude Krueger; Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2015. ISBN 978-3-462-04727-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Page 381.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Burnaby, Frederick Gustavus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British military, writer and traveler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 3, 1842 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bedford |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 17, 1885 |
| Place of death | Abu Klea |