Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lendy, Auguste Frederick

by Henry Manners Chichester

LENDY, AUGUSTE FREDERICK (1826–1889), military tutor, and author, born in 1826, was at one time a captain of the French army staff, but came to England as military tutor to the Orleans princes. About the date of the Crimean war he set up a private military college at Sunbury House, Sunbury-on-Thames, where he was long known as one of the ablest and most successful of the much-abused army ‘crammers.’ He held a commission for twenty years in the 4th royal Middlesex militia (now 5th battalion royal fusiliers), in which he was appointed ensign in 1859, lieutenant in 1862, captain in 1866, retiring with the honorary rank of major 1 Feb. 1879. He died at Riverside House, Sunbury, 10 Oct. 1889, in his sixty-fourth year.

Lendy's special subject was fortification of the period prior to the introduction of the polygonal system, and his work on the subject was, in its day, by far the best text-book in the English language. He published:

1. ‘Principles of War,’ London, 1853, 12mo.
2. ‘Maxims, Advice, and Instructions in the Art of War,’ translated from the French, Paris, 1857, 16mo; New York, 8vo.
3. ‘Elements of Fortification, Field and Permanent,’ London, 1857, 8vo.
4. ‘Campaigns of Napoleon, 1812’ (campaigns of Wellington), privately printed, 19 parts, London, 1861.
5. ‘Fortification: Lectures addressed to Officers reading for the Staff,’ London, 1862, 8vo.
6. ‘Practical Course of Military Surveying and Plan-drawing,’ London, 1864, 8vo.
7. ‘Marmont's Modern Armies,’ translated from the French, London, 1865, 8vo.
8. A revised edition of Lavallée's ‘Military Geography,’ London, 1868, 8vo. Lendy was an active supporter of horticulture, and distinguished as an amateur grower of orchids.

[Broad Arrow, 19 Oct. 1889; Brit. Mus. Cat. Printed Books; Gardeners' Mag. 19 Oct. 1889.]

H. M. C.