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General Sir Cornelius Francis, O’Clery K.C.M.G., K.C.B.

He was born in 2 Sidney Place, in Cork, Ireland in 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 compelled 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 was officially translated for the German Headquarter Staff.

Clery retired from the British Army due to ill health in 1901.He was very eccentric and had a habit of dyeing his prominent side-whiskers blue. In his retirement, he wrote a manual on military tactics. He died on 25 June 1926 at 4 Whitehall Court, Westminister, London.