Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick English
Biography and letters of Lt Col Frederick English, Royal Engineers
The long awaited parcel from home has at last arrived via Jamaica. Port Royal was the chief port of the island until the earthquake of 1692, since when it was eclipsed by Kingston. It was, however, still in use as a naval base.
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry John William Bentinck, Coldstream Guards, later served with distinction in the Crimea. He reached the rank of General and was knighted.
Fitchett ...
No date at head, started on 1 November 1838
Dudeen is an Irish word meaning a clay tobacco pipe.
Sir Andrew Halliday’s theory of vacuums as a cause of hurricanes is in chapter 3 of his book, The West Indies: The Nature and Physical History of the Windward and Leeward Colonies. English correctly points out that he offers no explanation for the cause of the vacuums.
The ‘delicate youth’ ...
Thomas Parry was appointed Archdeacon of Antigua by Bishop Coleridge in 1824 to help bring the Anglican church whole-heartedly into the emancipation camp. He succeeded Coleridge on his retirement from the diocese in 1842. His presence in Bridgetown suggests that he was deputising while Coleridge was in England.
RW is Robert Wiltshire, husband of Mrs English’s sister Mary – see letter 44; ...
As letters were charged according to the number of sheets, a larger sheet, in this case slightly smaller than foolscap, would accommodate more words at the same cost, and perhaps avoid a third coverage in red ink, which had clearly given rise to comments about illegibility. However, the temptation to use red ink proved irresistible.
The Trinidad Artilleryman is Lieutenant Munday.
‘Johnny ...
English has become preoccupied with speculations as to his next posting – will it be Canada, Plymouth, Ireland or where?
Kismus or Kismas is Qeshm, an island in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran. Britain needed a naval base to combat the threat of pirates in the Arabian Sea, through which most of Britain’s Indian trade passed even before the Suez Canal was built. The choice fell not on Qeshm but ...
My dear Kate: In consequence of the Packet having made an excellent passage and reaching Carlisle Bay on the 27th or 28th Decr whereas she was only due today, you must be content to receive two of my stupid letters dated within I think a week of each other. No doubt you will exclaim at the postage and substance herein, but truly I have little more to add to my last red ink ...
The Lady Charlotte, a Liverpool merchantman homeward bound from Peru, was driven ashore and wrecked on the south-west coast of Ireland with the loss of nine lives on 23 October 1838.
‘Buckeen’ is an Irish word meaning a social climber.
The earthquake of 11 January 1839 was centred on Martinique, where the French naval base at Fort Royal, now Fort Saint Louis, was largely destroyed with ...
Sir Edward Cust was a veteran of the Peninsula and a former Member of Parliament. He was at this time Master of the Household to King Leopold of the Belgians.
‘I never quized Kate’: see letters 102 and 103.
How is this my dear Kate? No letter from you by the last Packet of the 15th Jany which arrived after a short passage of 21 or 22 days. That you have written I do not doubt, and ...
This will be somewhat like master Fred’s hasty scrawls, but you must not be severe my dear Kate, for ski-he is the order of the day. I was only released from the Genl Court Martial last evening about 3 oclock, and have with Capt Rutherfurd who was also on the Court, been working away to prevent our office affairs getting in arrear by this interuption. Our award has been confirmed – the young ...
‘The poor man and his donkey’ refers to Aesop’s fable, The Man, the Boy and the Donkey’, the moral of which is ‘please all and you will please none’.
Admiral Edward Hawker, a member of the Plymouth Hawker family, was a retired officer whose comments on naval and military matters were published from time to time in The Times over the pseudonym ‘A Flag Officer’. He crops ...