Francis Clery

General Sir (Cornelius) Francis Clery KCB KCMG (13 February 1838 – 25 June 1926) was a British Army officer who commanded 2nd Division during the Second Boer War.

Military career

Educated at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare, Clery was commissioned into the 32nd Regiment of Foot in 1858.^[1] He became Professor of Tactics at the Royal Military College Sandhurst in 1872 and then became Deputy Assistant Adjutant & Quartermaster-General first in Ireland in 1875 and then at Aldershot in 1877.^[2]

He took part in the Anglo-Zulu War, being present at the Battle of Isandlwana in June 1879 and the Battle of Ulundi in July 1879,^[2] and the Egyptian Campaign of 1882.^[1] He was appointed Chief of the Staff to the Suakin Expedition of 1884, Deputy Adjutant-General to the Nile Expedition to relieve Major-General Gordon in 1884 and Chief of the Staff to the Egyptian Army of Occupation in 1886.^[1] He went on to be Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley in 1888, Commander of an Infantry Brigade at Aldershot in 1894 and General Officer Commanding 2nd Division in 1899 leading it during the Second Boer War.^[1] He led his Division at the Battle of Spion Kop but made little progress and the British forces were ultimately defeated in that action.^[3] Clery was eccentric and had a habit of dyeing his prominent side-wiskers blue.^[4]

He retired due to ill health in 1901 and wrote a manual on military tactics.^[1]

References

• Thomas Pakenham, The Boer War. New York: Random House 1979.