Bennet Graham Burley (c. 1840 – June 17, 1914) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born pirate,

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

spy and journalist. Later in life, he changed his surname to Burleigh and became a celebrated war correspondent for London's ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, he began work as a shipping clerk at the age of 20. Shortly afterwards, he was forced to marry one of the family's servants after getting her pregnant. Burley left for North America with another clerk to take part in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. He joined the Confederates, disrupting Union ship traffic. Burley was captured in May 1864 but escaped a month later. He took part in a raid on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

in September 1864 led by John Yates Beall. Burley had convinced a Canadian cousin in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

, Adam Robertson, to manufacture munitions for use in that raid. He returned to Guelph but was later captured and

extradite In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...

d to the United States. The jury deadlocked at his first trial and he was returned to jail to await a second trial. Burley was able to escape to Canada and returned to Scotland. At this point, he changed his name to Bennet Burleigh. Bennet Burleigh Grave Brookwood

In 1881, Burleigh was hired by the London ''Telegraph'' to cover the war in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. He was a correspondent for the Central News Agency during the

bombardment of Alexandria The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882. Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of Al ...

in 1882. Burleigh was the first to report the failure of the Gordon relief expedition, which led to the slaughter of the

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

garrison. He also covered the

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

and the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

. He authored several books on his experiences reporting on conflict. Burleigh ran unsuccessfully several times for Glasgow seats in the British parliament. He died in Bexhill on June 17, 1914 and was buried in

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

. Burleigh is thought by some to be a model for the correspondent Gilbert Torpenhow in

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

's '' The Light That Failed''.

Bibliography

* ''Khartoum Campaign 1898: or the Reconquest of the Soudan'', 1899 * ''The Natal Campaign'', 1900 * ''Empire of the East; or, Japan and Russia at war, 1904-5'', 1905 * Greaves, Graeden: ''Wild Bennet Burleigh: The Pen and the Pistol''. 2012

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burleigh, Bennet 1840s births 1914 deaths Scottish war correspondents War correspondents of the Balkan Wars American Civil War spies Journalists from Glasgow Scottish Labour Party (1888) politicians Burials at Brookwood Cemetery Liberal Unionist Party parliamentary candidates Scottish emigrants to the United States Escapees from United States military detention