bed of the Thames near Gravesend in 1838. For this service he received the thanks of the municipal authorities, and was presented with the freedom of the city of London in a gold casket of the value of fifty guineas. During six successive summers (1839 to 1844) he executed the more formidable task of clearing away the wreck of the Royal George from the anchorage at Spithead, and that of the Edgar from St. Helen's. The value of the materials recovered from these vessels was more than equal to the expense incurred in removing the wrecks.
During the nearly thirty years that he was director of the royal engineer establishment at Chatham there was hardly any subject in connection with his profession as a military man and an engineer that did not benefit by his attention. He formed the school for the royal engineers and for the army, and the corps of royal engineers owes its high state of efficiency in no small degree to his energy and exertions. In the debate in the House of Commons on 6 Feb. 1840, on the vote of thanks to the army after the capture of Ghazni, Sir H. Hardinge stated that the merit of the invention by the use of which the gates of Ghazni were blown open was due to Pasley. The easy and bloodless capture of the native pahs in the last New Zealand war was due to the adoption by officers (one of them his own son) of the use of explosives, and to the systematic employment of the spade as taught by him at Chatham.
Pasley remained at Chatham until his promotion as major-general on 23 Nov. 1841, when he was appointed inspector-general of railways. He received the honorary distinction of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford in 1844, and on relinquishing the appointment of inspector-general of railways in 1846 he was made a K.C.B. He had previously been made a C.B. He held the appointment of public examiner at the East India Company's military school at Addiscombe for sixteen years, up to 1855, and took an active part in its management. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society as far back as 1816, and had joined in early years the Astronomical, Geological, Geographical, Statistical, and other societies.
Pasley held no public office after 1855, but occupied himself chiefly in re-editing his works, in superintending the construction of pontoon equipages, and other matters connected with his profession. He was promoted lieutenant-general on 11 Nov. 1851; was appointed colonel-commandant of the royal engineers on 28 Nov. 1853, and became general in the army on 20 Sept. 1860. He died at his residence, 12 Norfolk Crescent, Hyde Park, London, from congestion of the lungs, on 19 April 1861.
Pasley was twice married, first, on 25 June 1814, at Chatham, to Harriet, daughter of W. Spencer Cooper, esq., who died after a few months; and, secondly, at Rochester, on 30 March 1819, to Martha Matilda Roberts, by whom he had six children, three of whom survived him. His second wife died in 1848. His son, Charles Pasley [q. v.] was an officer of the royal engineers.
A full-length portrait of Pasley, by Eddis, hangs in the mess of the royal engineers at Chatham.
Besides the works already noticed, Pasley published:
- ‘Lampedosa: a Series of Four Letters to the “Courier” written at the time of the Peace of Amiens,’ 1803.
- ‘A Course of Elementary Fortification,’ originally published as part of a ‘Course of Military Instruction,’ 2nd ed. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1822.
- ‘A complete Course of Practical Geometry, including Conic Sections and Plan Drawing,’ treated on a principle of peculiar perspicuity, originally published as the first volume of a ‘Course of Military Instruction,’ 2nd ed. much enlarged, 8vo, London, 1822.
- ‘Rules for Escalading Works of Fortifications not having Palisaded Covered Ways,’ 2nd ed. Chatham, 1822, 8vo, lithographed; 3rd ed. 8vo, Chatham, 1822; new edition, 12mo, Madras, 1845, and 8vo, 1854.
- ‘Practical Rules for making Telegraph Signals, with a Description of the Two-armed Telegraph, invented in 1804 by Lieut.-Colonel Pasley,’ 8vo, Chatham, 1822, lithographed.
- ‘Description of the Universal Telegraph for Day and Night Signals,’ 8vo, London, 1823.
- ‘A simple Practical Treatise on Field Fortification,’ 8vo, 1823.
- ‘Observations on Nocturnal Signals in General; with a simple Method of converting Lieut.-Colonel Pasley's Two-armed Telegraph into a Universal Telegraph for Day and Night Signals,’ 8vo, Chatham, 1823.
- ‘Exercise of the new-decked Pontoons or Double Canoes, invented by Lieut.-Colonel Pasley,’ lithographed, &c., 8vo, Chatham, 1823.
- ‘Rules, chiefly deduced from Experiments, for conducting the Practical Operations of a Siege,’ 8vo, 1829, Chatham; 2nd ed. 2nd pt. 8vo, London, 1843; 3rd ed. 1st pt. 8vo, London, 1853. (No more published; duplicate with new title-page, 8vo, London, 1857.)
He also contributed to the ‘Royal Engineers' Professional Papers,’ 4th ser. vols. i. and ii., and new ser. vol. viii.
