Augustus Frederick Lindley

Augustus Frederick Lindley
Born	3 February 1840 London, UK
Died	29 March 1873(1873-03-29) (aged 33) UK
Years of service	UK Navy 1857–1859 Taiping reform movement 1860–1863
Rank	Royal Navy Major, 1859 Colonel of Taiping, June 1863
Commands	Taiping Fleet
Battles / wars	Battle of Jofoolzo 九洑洲決戰, June 1863

Augustus Frederick Lindley (呤唎 "Lin-Le") 3 February 1840 – 29 March 1873, was a mid-19th-century British adventurer and writer.

Biography

Lindley's grave at Kensal Green Cemetery in 2019

China

In 1859, Lindley was a young Royal Navy officer stationed in Hong Kong, where he became betrothed to Marie, the daughter of the Portuguese consul at Macau. In 1860 he resigned his commission, taking a job as the executive officer of a trading steamer smuggling specie to the Taiping reform movement in Shanghai. He accepted a commission from Taiping general Li Xiucheng, and helped train their soldiers in British Army techniques, while Marie became a sniper. After her death, he returned to England. In 1866, he wrote and published "Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: or the History of the Taiping Revolution". This work included a dedication: To Le-Siu-Cheng, the Chung-Wang, "Faithful Prince," Commander-in-Chief of the Ti-Ping forces, this work is dedicated if he be living; and if not, to his memory.

Battle of Jofoolzo—commanding Taiping's warships

In June 1863, Li Xiucheng commanded 250,000 troops to withdraw to Nanjing; Taiping warships bore troops across the river while tough fighting transpired between the Taiping and the Qing Army (Battle of Jofoolzo 九洑洲決戰). Lindley, as commander of the Taiping fleet, several times defeated the Qing offensive and sank many Qing warships, but he was wounded, and his wife Marie and friend Earl were killed in action. For his service, Lindley was promoted to the rank of colonel by the Taiping.

General Gordon

When Charles George Gordon returned to the UK, Lindley publicly castigated Gordon in the pages of The Times.

South Africa

In 1868, Lindley, with Roger Pocklington, the American brothers Will and Tom Ashwell, and Louis de Glon of Switzerland, landed at Durban to undertake a gold-hunting expedition in the Transvaal. While no gold was found, the group travelled extensively among the Boer and the various black communities, and encountered many adventures. Pocklington married a Potchefstroom girl, and settled there. The Ashwells and de Glon took up farming in Natal; Will was later an associate of Cecil Rhodes in the consolidation of the Kimberly diamond mines. Lindley returned to England, where he wrote "After Ophir, or, A Search For the South African Gold Fields".

External links

• Works by Augustus F. Lindley at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Augustus Frederick Lindley at the Internet Archive