Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Brackenbury, Henry

926016Men of the Time, eleventh edition — Brackenbury, HenryThompson Cooper

BRACKENBURY, Colonel Henry, C.B., R.A., born at Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, Sept. 1, 1837, was educated at Tonbridge, Eton, and Woolwich. He was appointed to the Royal Artillery in April, 1856; and served in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny in 1857–58. Subsequently he was appointed to the staff of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, first as officer for discipline, then as Instructor in Artillery, finally as Professor of Military History. He served throughout the Franco-German war as chief representative of the British National Society for aid to sick and wounded in war; received the Iron Cross from the Emperor of Germany; and was made Officer of the Legion of Honour by the French Government, and Knight of the First Class of the Bavarian Order of St. Michael. Being appointed Military Secretary to Sir Garnet Wolseley, he served with him throughout the Ashanti Campaign, 1873–4. He served as a member of a special mission to Natal in 1875; was Assistant Adjutant-General to the Cyprus Expeditionary Force in 1878; and raised and organised the Cyprus Military Police. In 1879 he accompanied Sir G. Wolseley to South Africa as Military Secretary, and later succeeded Sir G. Colley as Chief of the Staff, in which capacity he served throughout the closing operations of the Zulu war and the campaign against Sekukuni. In 1880 he was appointed Private Secretary to the Viceroy of India, and returned to England with the Earl of Lytton, on his resignation. He was Military Attaché to the British Embassy at Paris from Jan., 1881, to May, 1882, when he was appointed Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland, to deal with all matters relating to police and crime in that country. He resigned the latter post, however, on July 19, 1882. He is the author of "Fanti and Ashanti," 1873; "Narrative of the Ashanti War;" and of several military pamphlets.