Lieut.-Colonel Burnaby.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5026, 20 February 1885, Page 2

Lieut.-Colonel Burnaby.

A brave soldier has been. lost to the _ British army, and an intrepid traveller to.; geographical science, by the death of Lieatenaut-Colonel Frederick Buroaby, who has fallen, with eight brother officers, and 55 men, in the battle of Abukela. The? list of casualties shows that those who led \S the troops were in the thickest of the fight, and when fuller details reach us they will no doubt prove how gallantly the br»re soldiers whose loss we are now 'called upon to deplore, bare themselves in a hand-to-hand conflict against an enemy powerful in numbers and animated by desperate courage. But of those who fell none will be more sorely missed or more sincerely regretted than the heroic Burnaby. He had not yet attained the 43rd year of his ' age; and although he bad already made • himself a name, it was hoped during the next 20 yeara many opportunities would have been afforded him of illustrating it still further by the performance of brilliant exploits." Probably he has met with the very death which he would most hare desired to die, with his face to the enemy, and his voice and example cheering on his comrades in arms, on the ere of a decisive victory, but we would have wished a lest valuable life had been sacrificed instead of his.

Lieutenant-colonel Burnaby. was the son of the late Her. G. Burnaby, and was bora at Bedford on the 3rd of Mareb, 1812. Some of the robuster qualities of his nature seem to have come to him on the maternal side, as his mother was the daughter of Mr Harry Villebois, of Markham-housc, Norfolk, a famous . sportsman, a hard rider, and a zealous lover of out-of-dodr recreations. Young Frederick's education was commenoed at Harrow, aud many old Harrovians will recall his bright, open countenance—-the eyes full of animation, the powerful chin, , (Which gave a character of firmness to his face—his frank outspoken manner, his high personal courage, and his excellence in athletic contests. The latter he conr tinued in Germany, where he was sent for. - the purpose of acquiring a thorough' mastery of the language, and in order to complete his education. At the age of 17 he obtained a commission in the Royal Horse Guards Blue. Endowed by nature with a powerful physique, an ad». mirablo fencer, and an accomplished gym* * nast, he acquired quite a celebrity by the exploits of skill and strength he was accustomed to perform, and having quite a passion for muscular exercises, he, pursued them with so much ardour as to injure his health. But his nature was so resolute and ardent that some outlet had to be Jound for its activity. His medical adviser accordingly recommended him to travel, and his "truant disposition" carried him over the greatest part of' Europe, and impelled him to visit South America and Central Africa. It was while he was at Khartoum, on his way back from paying a visit to Colonel Gordon on the White Nile, that Burnaby happened to see a paragraph in a newspaper stating that the Government at St. Petersburg had ' given orders that no foreigner to be allowed to travel in Russian Asia, and that :■ an Englishman attempting to do so had been recently turned back. Being what his old nurse used to call a most "contra* dictorious" spirit, he then and there determined to visit Central Asia, and on re* turning to England he made all his prep* arations accordingly/ He left London on '* the 30th of November, 1875, proceeded to St. Petersburg and thence by way of Moscow, Samara, and Orenburg to Fort Karabootasky. Thence he dashed across a difficult country to Kazala, near the mouth of the Syr Dana, from whence he obtained permission from the Russian commandant to journey to Petro Alexan* drovski, under the impression that he was bound for India. But Burnaby made a detour to Khiva, and was going on from there to Bokhara, when he received a telegram from the Russian authorities informing him that the commandant at Petro Alexandroviski had a message for - him from the Duke of Cambridge, This proved to be an order for Burnaby's immediate return to European Russia. 1 As everybody is presumably acquainted with the Ride to Khiva, which was published soon after Burnaby's return to England, it is unnecessary to dwell upon the accomplishment in which his knowledge of Russian, Arabic, and the Tartar dialects stood him in good atead. When the chril war in Spain broke out, shortly afterwards, : he proceeded thither as the special correspondent of The Timts, and accompanied the army of Don Carlos. In the winter of 1876—7, he trailed through a great part of Asia Minor, setting out from Scutari, and reaching Khoi, in Persia, ■* from whence he returned by way of Van, <$! Ears, Aaadham, Batoum, and Trebizonde to Constantinople. Lieut.-Colonel Burnaby was an enthusiastic aeronaut, and made as many as 20 balloon ascents. The laßfc took place on the 23rd of March, 1882, when with a few' sandwiches, a bottle of Appoliinaris water, a rug, and some 20 bags of sand, he crossed the Faglish Channel, ascended at one time to a height of 11,000 ft., and safely descended towardi nightfall, at the Chateau de Montigny, near Caen, in Normandy. Not long ago the news reached us of his marriage, and now comes the .sad intelligence of his death on a field of battle in the rery prime of life.