and German translations were published. Chesney was for many years a constant contributor to the newspaper press and to periodic literature, devoting himself for the most part to the critical treatment of military operations, and professional subjects generally. Some of his essays on military biography, contributed mainly to the Edinburgh Review, were afterwards published separately in 1874. In 1868 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Military Education, under the presidency first of Earl de Grey and afterwards of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, to whose recommendations were due the improved organization of the military colleges, and the development of military education in the principal military stations of the British army. In 1871, on the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, he was sent on a special mission to the French Third Republic and the German Empire, and furnished to the government a series of valuable reports on the different siege operations which had been carried out during the war, especially the two sieges of Paris. These reports were published in a large volume, which was issued confidentially. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in 1873, and at the time of his death he was commanding Royal Engineer of the London district. Death and burial Chesney was abstemious and, overwork of mind and body telling at last on a frail constitution, he died on 19 March 1876 following a short illness. He was buried at Sandhurst. Assessment Never seeking regimental or staff preferment, Colonel Chesney never obtained any, but he held at the time of his death a unique position in the army, altogether apart from and above his actual place in it. He was consulted by officers of all grades on professional matters, and few have done more to raise the intellectual standard of the British officer. Constantly engaged in literary pursuits, he was nevertheless laborious and exemplary in the discharge of his public duties, while managing also to devote a large part of his time to charitable and religious offices. References Attribution: Sources External links Patrick M. Kirkwood, "The Impact of Fiction on Public Debate in Late Victorian Britain: The Battle of Dorking and the 'Lost Career' of Sir George Tomkyns Chesney", The Graduate History Review 4, No. 1 (Fall, 2012), 1–16. 1826 births 1876 deaths Royal Engineers officers People educated at Blundell's School Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich People from County Down