Commander Engineers, Southern Tasmanian Volunteers and president, Tasmanian Rifle Association 1862-1867
Captain Francis Rawdon Lanyon RE and Mrs. (Grace) Chesney, their two children, and one servant, arrived in Hobart from England via Melbourne on 20 June 1862. A month later, somewhat amusingly for the colonials, was the news that his housemaid had stolen a pair of his drawers (among other things). It was less amusing for the housemaid, as this was the evidence which sent her to gaol for six months with hard labour.
Captain Francis Rawdon Chesney RE and Mrs. Grace Chesney, their two children, and one servant, arrived in Hobart from England via Melbourne on 20 June 1862. A month later, somewhat amusingly for the colonials, was the news that his housemaid had stolen a pair of his drawers (among other things). It was less amusing for the housemaid, as this was the evidence which sent her to gaol for six months with hard labour. While Chesney could have believed that he had been sent to a backwater full of convicts or former convicts, his role in the small society of Tasmania demanded that he rise above the incident. This he did with aplomb, and over the next few years he became one of its leading members.
Chesney was the son of General Sir George Chesney, older brother of Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney and nephew of General F.R. (also Francis Rawdon) Chesney, the Euphrates Valley explorer and discoverer of the Suez canal route. The outline of his military career, from a cadet at Woolwich in 1840 to retirement as Major-General in 1876, has been documented elsewhere. Somewhat inexplicably, that biography, while noting Irish-born Chesney’s service in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Ireland and Mauritius, appears to have missed that Chesney also served in Tasmania between 1862 and 1867. During his posting in Tasmania, with local rank of colonel, Chesney wore a number of hats including Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers in that colony, Commander of the Southern Tasmanian Volunteers and also president of the Tasmanian Rifle Association.
Chesney designed the Hobart cricket field for the Southern Tasmania Cricket Club, developed plans for public baths, laid irrigation pipes to the Domain, and improved access roads and paths. He developed the space adjacent to the Engineer Office as a drill yard for the Volunteer parades and Royal fireworks displays (which drew large crowds of Hobartian spectators). But he was most notable for his attention to the fort defences of Hobart. In 1866, Chesney also constructed the battery position for three guns at Thompson’s Point at Cormiston on the West Tamar River near Launceston, acting as consulting officer to the placement of the artillery as well. He advised on rifle range construction and also gave advice on the construction of school rooms to the Board of Education.
But his engineering duties were never demanding and commanding 150-300 Volunteers could only satisfy him so far. Chesney’s intelligent interest in all matters of the physical sciences invariably engaged him in commercial opportunities in which he was an enthusiastic, if not always lucky, investor. In Tasmania, he was a shareholder of the Fingal Quartz Crushing Company and was an enthusiastic spruiker for the prospects of the mine. He also owned shares in the Alliance, and Union Quartz, Crushing Companies, although neither prospered. In July 1866 Chesney took up land in the remote north-west of Tasmania and ordered ‘gutta percha’ boats from England to explore the Arthur River district – no doubt for gold.
Chesney’s shareholding in another speculative company, the Seymour Coal Mining Company, showed his interest not just in its coal and brick making operations but also in its potential for shale oil. In May 1867 he sailed for Melbourne, to market his new ‘clear, light and non-explosive’ illuminating oil. Taking out a patent for ‘Crude Hydrocarbon Oil for illuminating, lubricating, and other purposes’, he founded a company in Victoria – the Australian Coal and Kerosene Company – to develop manufacturing of the oil in Seymour, north of Hobart.
On his departure for England in 1867, now Brevet Major Chesney had experienced a rich and varied assignment to Tasmania. He engaged with the ruling class of the colony and played a central role as a society leader, patron of the performing arts, Fellow of the Royal Society, member of St. David’s church, entrepreneur, father, and explorer. While in Tasmania, he was also deployed to active service in New Zealand. Chesney was an experienced R.E. officer; some of his works as Military Engineer survive in Hobart to this day. Like other British Army soldiers who lived and worked in colonial Tasmania, Chesney contributed much to civil society. In a sad ending for the Chesneys however, they also left behind their Tasmanian-born and only son, Henry, aged four, who died of scarlet fever just three weeks before their departure – ever to be remembered by them.
Full article published in:
‘Francis Rawdon Chesney, Royal Engineers, 1824-1907’, Soldiers of the Queen: Journal of the Victorian Military Society, Issue 143, December 2010. ISSN 0143-5515. Copyright © Andrew Kilsby.