Roddy Owen
Roddy Owen (actually: Edward Roderic Owen) (* 1856 ; † July 11, 1896 near Dongola , Sudan ) was a successful British jockey and important officer.
Life
After finishing school in Eton in 1873, he began his career as an officer. After stations in Canada , Cyprus and Malta , he took on a position with the staff of the Viceroy of India , then from 1885 to 1891 on the staff of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . During this time he took part as a jockey in numerous local races, where he was very successful. He crowned his career as an exceptional rider by winning the Grand National in 1892 with a 20 length lead. He was then wounded as a major in the Jebu War , a campaign in West Africa (now Nigeria ). In 1893 he founded a series of forts on the western border of the Kingdom of Toro in the new protectorate of Uganda on behalf of Sir Gerald Portal , collecting the Egyptian-Sudanese troops left behind by Emin Pasha after his meeting with Henry Morton Stanley at Wadelai and using them to man the forts . He named one of these forts Fort Gerry , after Portal's first name (today: Fort Portal ). On January 5, 1895, he received the DSO . In the same year he was sent to northern India as a war correspondent for The Pioneer , where he reported on the suppression of the revolt in Chitral . In the spring of 1896 he was in Egypt and took part in the suppression of the Mahdi regime under Horatio Herbert Kitchener . Shortly thereafter, cholera broke out, which claimed heavy casualties among the British-Egyptian-Sudanese army, including Major Roddy Owen.
Afterlife
- His sister Mai Bovill published a book in 1897 under the title: Roddy Owen - A Memoir , which was extremely successful. (Bovill, M. & Askwith, GR: Roddy Owen - A Memoir, John Murray, London, 1897)
- His great-nephew bears the same name and published a book in 1967 in which he traveled to the last stages of his great-uncle's life (R. Owen: Roddy Owen's Africa , Marcham Manor Press, Appleford-Abingdon, Berks., 1967)
- The British colonial authorities named the Owen Falls and thus also the Owen Falls Dam on the Victoria Nile after him.
- A racehorse named Roddy Owen in his memory was very successful in Great Britain in the 1950s and 60s .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Owen, Roddy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Owen, Edward Roderic (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British jockey and officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1856 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 11, 1896 |
| Place of death | near Dongola , Sudan |