CHESNEY, FRANCIS RAWDON

born March 16, 1789, Annalong, County Down, Ire. died Jan. 30, 1872, Mourne, County Down British soldier, explorer, and Middle East traveler whose fame rests on his projects for the Suez Canal and for an overland route to India by the Euphrates River valley. After a cadetship at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, near London, Chesney was gazetted to the Royal Artillery in 1805 and later rose to be a general. During a tour of military duty at Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1829, he formulated plans for the Suez Canal that were the basis of Ferdinand de Lesseps' undertaking completed in 1868. After a daring journey from 'Anah on the Euphrates River to the Persian Gulf, Chesney in 1831 suggested the overland route to India and, with the support of the East India Company, pressed the proposal on the British government. In 1835 he was sent in command of a small expedition to test the navigability of the Euphrates. In spite of much opposition from the Egyptian pasha, he transported two steamers in sections overland from the Mediterranean at Antioch to the middle Euphrates. The Tigris went down in a storm, but Chesney and the Euphrates reached the Persian Gulf in the summer of 1836. Though the voyage was deemed a success, the British government took no steps to implement his plan. His report of the expedition was published in The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, 2 vol. (1850), and Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition (1868). Chesney was sent to Hong Kong (1843-47) to command the British artillery after the first Opium War with China. He retired from the army in 1847, and, though he went to the Middle East again in 1856 and 1862, he made his home in Ireland until his death.