Claude Reignier Conder (29 December 1848, Cheltenham – 16 February 1910, Cheltenham) was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of

Louis-François Roubiliac Louis-François Roubiliac (or Roubilliac, or Roubillac) (31 August 1702 – 11 January 1762) was a French sculptor who worked in England. One of the four most prominent sculptors in London working in the rococo style, he was described by Margar ...

and grandson of editor and author Josiah Conder. Conder was educated at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Si ...

. He became a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

in the

Corps of Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

in 1870. He carried out survey work in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

in 1872–1874, latterly in conjunction with Lt Kitchener, later

Lord Kitchener Lord Kitchener may refer to: * Earl Kitchener, for the title * Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a senior British Army officer and colonial administrator. ...

, whom he had met at school, and was seconded to the Palestine Exploration Fund from 1875 to 1878 and again in 1881 and 1882, when he was promoted captain. He retired with the rank of colonel in 1904. Conder joined the expedition to Egypt in 1882, under

Sir Garnet Wolseley Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, (4 June 183325 March 1913), was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, W ...

, to suppress the

rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

Arabi Pasha Arabi may refer to: * Ibn Arabi (1165–1240), early medieval Muslim mystic and philosopher * Arabi (sheep) *Arabi, Iran (disambiguation), villages in Iran *Arabi, Ethiopia *Arabi, Georgia, United States * Ahmed ‘Urabi, a 19th-century Egyptian re ...

. He was appointed a deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general on the staff of the intelligence department. In Egypt his perfect knowledge of Arabic and of Eastern people proved most useful. He was present at the action of

Kassassin Kassassin ( ar, القصاصين) is a village of Lower Egypt by rail west of Ismailia, a major city on the Suez Canal. Battle of Kassassin Lock At the Sweet Water Canal, on August 28, 1882 the British force was attacked by the Egyptians, ...

, the

Battle of Tel el-Kebir The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British ...

, and the advance to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

, but then, seized with typhoid fever, he was invalided home. For his services he received the war medal with clasp for Tel el-Kebir, the

Khedive Khedive (, ota, خدیو, hıdiv; ar, خديوي, khudaywī) was an honorific title of Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan" ...

's bronze

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

and the fourth class of the

Order of the Medjidie Order of the Medjidie ( ota, نشانِ مجیدی, August 29, 1852 – 1922) is a military and civilian order of the Ottoman Empire. The Order was instituted in 1851 by Sultan Abdulmejid I. History Instituted in 1851, the Order was awarded in f ...

. While surveying the area of

Safed Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevat ...

in July 1875, Conder and his party were attacked by local residents and Conder sustained a serious

head injury A head injury is any injury that results in trauma to the skull or brain. The terms ''traumatic brain injury'' and ''head injury'' are often used interchangeably in the medical literature. Because head injuries cover such a broad scope of in ...

which left him bedridden for a while and unable to return to Palestine. The work of surveying the country of Palestine commenced again only in late February 1877, without Conder.H.H. Kitchener
Survey of Galilee
''Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement'' (1878), pp. 159–174. Claude Reignier Conder

Publications

* 1878: ''Tent Work in Palestine'' * 1879: ''Judas Maccabæus, and the Jewish War of Independence'' * 1880: ''Memoires: The Survey of Western and Eastern Palestine'' * 1883: ''Heth and Moab, Explorations in Syria in 1881 and 1882'' * 1886: ''Syrian Stone-lore, Or, The Monumental History of Palestine'' * 1887: ''Altaic Hieroglyphs and Hittite Inscriptions'' * 1889: ''Palestine'' * 1889: ''The Survey of Eastern Palestine, Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, Archaeology, Etc.'' * 1893: ''The Tell Amarna Tablets'' * 1896: ''The Bible and the East'' * 1897: ''The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' * 1898: ''The Hittites and their Language'' * 1900: ''The Hebrew Tragedy'' * 1902: ''The First Bible'' * 1909: ''The City of Jerusalem''

Books (with online access)

*Conder, Claude Reignier (1879)
Tent Work in Palestine
', vol 1 *Conder, Claude Reignier (1879)
Tent Work in Palestine
', vol 2 * (The full text, archive.org, Can download PDF) * (The full text, archive.org, Can download PDF) *Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881):
The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology
'' London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 3 The full text, archive.org, Can download PDF. * * * * *

Articles (with online access)

* * *

References

* *

External links

* * *
Profile
at PEF website
Claude Reignier Conder
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Conder, Claude Reignier 1848 births 1910 deaths English explorers Royal Engineers officers People from Cheltenham Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Alumni of University College London Palestinologists Historical geographers