Maj. C. Clery, Principle Staff Officer,

Maj. C. Clery, Principle Staff Officer, present with No.3 Column (Morden).
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Photo By Tim Needham.

LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR FRANCIS CLERY, K.C.B. The narme of Lieut.-General Sir Cornelius Francis Clery is best known as the author of a standard work on Tactics, a work which has long been accepted as a text book by our own military authorities, a nd is so well thought of that it has been translated into at least four foreign lan guages. Like so many of our other more prominent sons of Mars, Sir Francis Clery is an Irishman his family having for generations been settled in the picturesque county of Cork. It was there that thd subject of our sketch,was born on February 13th, 1838. Early in life he developed strong military instincts, and so it was resolved that. he should become a soldier. Thus, on March 5th, 1858, he was gazetted to an Ensigncy in a regiment. whose distinguished services during the Indian Mutiny had earned for it a world-wide reputation-the 32nd Light Infantry- obtaining his Lieutenancy June 5th, 1859. Young Clery was Adjutant of his regiment. from November 5th, 1861, to January 15th, 1866, when promotion to a Company disqualified him for retaining a position which he had held with the utmost credit. Good soldier though he had shown himself to be, he seemed almost to despair of getting a look in on service but he went to the Staff College in 1869, and passing out at the end of 1870 made such a record that he was at once appointed an Instructor of Tactics at the Royal Military College, taking up his duties on January 27th, 1871, and exchanging them on September 4th, 1872, for those of Professor, which important chair he filled until May 23rd,1875. He then proceeded to Ireland as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster- General on the- Headquarters Staff at Dublin, and on April 5th, 1877, was transferred to Aldershot in the same capacity. On May 31st, 1878, he proceeded on Special Service to South Africa, and in the following year, with twenty-one years service, received his baptism of fire in the Zulu War. He was present at the engagement at Isai-ldhlwana and battle of Ulundi, his reward being a splendid mention in Despatches, the Brevet of Lieut.-Colonel and the medal with clasp.

This portrait is the original photograph / Artwork reproduced in the book "Celebrities of the Army".
Lt Gen Sir Francis Clery KCB, British army officer who served in the Anglo Zulu war, Egypt campaign, Sudan campaign, Nile Expedition, Boer War
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Clery, GENERAL SIR CORNELIUS FRANCIS, K.C.M.G., K.C.B.

"Was born in Ireland 1838, and received his early education at Clongowes Wood College. He joined the Army in 1858, and fourteen years later became Professor of Tactics
at Sandhurst. Having subsequently filled staff appointments in Ireland and at Aldershot, he took part in the Zulu War of 1879, distinguishing himself as the Staff Officer
of Wood's Flying Column. He was engaged in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, was Chief of the Staff to the Suakim Expedition of 1884, D.A.G. to the Nile Expedition of 1884- 85, and Chief of the Staff to the Egyptian Army of Occupation 1886-88. From 1888-93 ne commanded the Staff College at Camberley, becoming a Major-General in 1894, with command of an Infantry Brigade at Aldershot. He was entrusted with the leadership of the Second Division of the South African Field Force in 1899, but ill-health com-
pelled his retirement from the Army in 1901. General Clery, who was knighted in 1899, is an authority on the theoretical and student's side of his profession, and his
manual on Minor Tactics has been officially translated for the German Headquarter Staff."