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17 Facts About Francis Clery

1.

Cornelius Frances Clery was born in 2 Sidney Place, Cork, Ireland on 13 February 1838.

2.

Francis Clery was educated at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare.

3.

Francis Clery was commissioned as an ensign into the 32nd Regiment of Foot in 1858.

4.

Francis Clery was promoted to lieutenant in 1859 and captain in 1866.

5.

Francis Clery became an instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1872, and later became Professor of Tactics.

6.

Francis Clery later took part in the Anglo-Zulu War as the principal staff officer to Colonel Richard Glyn, the man responsible for the centre column of the invasion force.

7.

Francis Clery was given the job of marking out a camp near the Isandlwana hill on 20 January 1879.

8.

Francis Clery was later transferred to Sir Evelyn Wood's column where he took part in the Battle of Ulundi on 4 July 1879.

9.

In 1882 Francis Clery served as assistant adjutant and quartermaster general in the Egyptian Campaign.

10.

Francis Clery was appointed chief of the staff to the Suakin Expedition of 1884, deputy adjutant-general to the Nile Expedition to relieve Major-General Gordon in 1884 and chief of the staff to the Egyptian Army of Occupation in 1886.

11.

Francis Clery was then appointed as general officer commanding of the 2nd Division in 1899.

12.

Francis Clery was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1899 Birthday Honours.

13.

Francis Clery led the 2nd Division during the Second Boer War, and was given the temporary rank of lieutenant-general from 9 October 1899.

14.

Francis Clery was briefly hospitalised in February 1900, but returned to duty the following month.

15.

Francis Clery retired from the British Army due to ill health in 1901.

16.

Francis Clery was very eccentric and had a habit of dyeing his prominent side-whiskers blue.

17.

Francis Clery died on 25 June 1926 at 4 Whitehall Court, Westminster, London.