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Burnaby, Fred

Entry updated 25 November 2024. Tagged: Author.

(1842-1885) UK soldier, traveller and author, almost exclusively of travel books retailing his own exploits in Turkey, Russia and elsewhere. He was co-founder of the magazine Vanity Fair, and his life and opinions combined broad hints of Decadence and a flamboyant high toryism. All of this is reflected in his one work of fiction, the Near-Future Our Radicals: A Tale of Love and Politics (1886 2vols), issued after his death: a Political drama and Imperialist polemic in which the British abandon their far-flung empire while, closer to home, Irish rebels blow up the great tunnel connecting Dublin to Holyhead. Eventually a Burnaby-like soldier quashes the Irish and becomes dictator, his loyalty to the Queen unimpaired. Burnaby himself had died in combat, charging the Mahdi valiantly after issuing a damaging order to his troops. [JC]

Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby

born Bedford, Bedfordshire: 3 March 1842

died at the battle of Abu Klea, Egypt: 17 January 1885

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