CAUGHT IN THE CYCLONE

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

George Alfred Henty, war correspondent and author,was born at Trumpington, near Cambridge, on December8, 1832. He was educated at Westminster School andGonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Leaving Cambridgewithout a degree, he went to the Crimea during the warwith Russia and served in the purveyor's department ofthe army. On being invalided home he was appointedpurveyor to the forces, and in 1859 he went to Italy toorganize the hospitals of the Italian legion. After hisreturn he held similar home appointments for a time,but he resigned his commission later and engaged inmining operations in Wales and Sardinia. In 1865 hebegan his career as war correspondent for the Standardnewspaper, and in this capacity went through theAustro-Italian, Abyssinian, Franco-German, Ashanti, andTurco-Servian campaigns. He was also in Paris during theCommune, and he accompanied Edward VII when, asPrince of Wales, he visited India. He described two ofthese campaigns in The March to Magdala (1868) and TheMarch to Coomassie (1874). His death took place on hisyacht in Weymouth harbour on November 16, 1902.

Henty wrote several novels of the orthodox type, buthis reputation rests upon his stories for boys, which arefull of adventure and are mostly based on famoushistorical events. Among them are:* Out on the Pampas*(1868); The Young Franc-Tireurs (1871), a Story of theFranco-German War; The Young Buglers, a Tale of thePeninsular War (1879); In Times of Peril, a Tale ofIndia (1881); Under Drake's Flag (1882); ...