Henry Adrian Churchill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Adrian_Churchill

The following is an excerpt from "On the trail of the descendants of a newspaper editor in Constantinople," a family history essay posted online by Arthur ‘Mike’ Waring Roberts III. Its main subject is William Noseworthy (Nosworthy) Churchill, an English journalist, his wife, Beatrice Churchill (Belhomme), and their relatives.

Among the children, "of William and Beatrice Churchill, there is a Henry Churchill recorded who died in Palermo, Sicily in the 1880s while he was the British Consul there.

An internet search subsequently revealed more on his life, from his obituary: ‘In his fifty-seventh year [died 1886, therefore born 1829, making him younger than brother Alfred Black], of Mr. Henry A. CHURCHILL, who at twenty began his career in the service of the Crown by assisting the British Commission for the Delimitation of the Turco-Persian Boundary. As Secretary and Interpreter on the Staff of the British Commissioner with the Turkish Army in the Asia, he took part in the defence of Kars - postcard views -, and was for a time a Russian prisoner, on its capitulation [November 1855], to General Mouravieff. After filling several important Consulships and Consul-Generalships, he was appointed in 1879 Consul of Palermo’.

More clues on the role of Henry A. Churchill is provided by a book written by one of the defenders of Kars, Colonel Atwell Lake, which indicates Henry Churchill could translate from Arabic and was at the time of the Crimean war attaché of the British mission in Persia. In another book ‘A Narrative of the Siege of Kars, and of the Six Months’ Resistance by the Turkish Garrison Under... by Humphry Sandwith’, there are 3 references to this Churchill, viewable online, page 233, 289 and 307, showing him to be a loyal and able officer. In addition in the book ‘Kars and our captivity in Russia –– London, Richard Bentley, 1856’ p.19 there is this reference: ‘my secretary, Mr. Churchill, an attaché of Her Majesty’s mission in Persia; he directed the fire of a battery throughout the action, and caused the enemy great loss’.

This notable act led to his becoming Consul at Sarayevo, Bosnia, Jassy in Rumania, then H. M.’s Agent, Consul-General in Moldavia and H.M’s Consul-General in Syria, Consul in Zanzibar, Tanzania (1865-1870), and British Consul at Palermo in 1879. He wrote an article on cholera in Zanzibar in 1870, held in the archives of the The Royal Geographic Society in London.

A chance web-site discovery has revealed the name of a younger brother of the Consul Henry A. Churchill, William A. Churchill, who visited his brother in Zanzibar where he was posted, and clearly showed an artistic flair, not dissimilar to his brother’s when doing field sketches during the siege of Kars, so a family trait perhaps. This web site also has some information on the character of H. A. Churchill.

In addition through the ‘National Probate Calendar’ records held at the National Archives Centre (PRO library) in London, published on 2nd Sept 1886 details as follows: ‘Administration (with the will) of the Personal Estate (value £304) [~%C2%A318.500 in today’s money] of Henry Adrian Churchill formerly of Zanzibar but late of Palermo in Italy who died 12 July at Palermo was granted at the Principal Registry under the usual Limitations to Harry Lionel Churchill of 8 Park Place, Upper Baker Street in the County of Middlesex [now part of central London], Her Majesty’s Vice-Consul, the Lawful Attorney of Marie Churchill Widow the Relict the sole Executrix now residing in Palermo.’ Thus we know the names of his wife and son and the son’s address. From the National Archive records it seems this individual seems to have been also a physician and corresponded with Lord Hardinge."

Source: Downloaded 2010 from http://www.levantineheritage.com/testi58.htm

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