Ernest Ayscoghe Floyer
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Ernest Ayscoghe Floyer (1852–1903) was an English colonial official, and explorer in
Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
and the
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
. He explored the economically useful plants and materials of interest along his travels. He was put in charge of extracting nitrate of soda after discovering a deposit of it in Egypt and later served as inspector general of telegraphs in Egypt.


Life

Born on 4 July 1852 at
Marshchapel Marshchapel is a coastal village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Lindsey Non-metropolitan district, district of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately south-east from Grimsby and north-east from Louth, Lincolnshire, ...
,
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, he was eldest surviving son of the Rev. Ayscoghe Floyer (d. 1872) and his wife Louisa Sara Floyer (1830–1909), daughter of the Hon. Frederic John Shore of the Bengal Civil Service, and granddaughter of
John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth (5 October 1751 – 14 February 1834) was a British official of the East India Company who served as Governor-General of Bengal from 1793 to 1798. In 1798 he was created Baron Teignmouth in the Peerage of ...
, and writer on needlework. Educated at Reverend C. Boys at Wing Rectory, Rutland, and then
Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...
from 1865 until 1869, he served for seven years in the Indian telegraph service, stationed on the coast of the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
. On a long leave, in January 1876, Floyer started for the unexplored interior of what is now Sistan and Baluchestan Province, in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. He travelled there him until May 1877, and earned himself a reputation as an explorer. In January 1878 he was appointed inspector-general of Egyptian telegraphs, a post which he held for the rest of his life. He turned round the finances of the department, and induced the government to devote a part of its surplus to experiments on the cultivation of trees and plants in the desert. He cultivated successfully cactus for fibre, ''
Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fami ...
'' for telegraph poles, ''
Hyoscyamus muticus ''Hyoscyamus muticus'', the Egyptian henbane, is a shrub in the family of Solanaceae that is native to desert areas of North Africa. It contains alkaloids that are useful in pharmaceuticals. It is used locally as a painkiller and a recreational d ...
'' yielding the alkaloid hyoscyamine, and other plants. Having discovered
sodium nitrate Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate. T ...
in a clay in
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...
, he was appointed by the government to superintend the process of its extraction. In 1884 Floyer made a journey in the
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, from
Wadi Halfa Wādī Ḥalfā ( ar, وادي حلفا) is a city in the Northern state of Sudan on the shores of Lake Nubia near the border with Egypt. It is the terminus of a rail line from Khartoum and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferr ...
to
Al Dabbah Al Dabbah (also known as ''Ed Debba'', ''El Debba'', ''El Debbah'' or ''Ed Debbah'') is a town on the river banks of the Nile, which is served by the Al Dabbah Airport. It has an estimated population of 52,000. The town is antipodal to Tahiti ...
; and in 1887 surveyed two routes between the
River Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
and the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
at about latitude 26°. In 1891 he was appointed by the
Khedive of Egypt The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ota, خدیویت مصر ') was an autonomous Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire, tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and e ...
to the command of an expedition in a more southerly part of the same desert (about latitude 24°). On this expedition he rediscovered the abandoned Sikait-Zubara emerald mines, which were then reopened. For services to the military authorities Floyer received the
Egypt Medal The Egypt Medal (1882–1889) was awarded for the military actions involving the British Army and Royal Navy during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War and in the Sudan between 1884 and 1889. Resentment at increasing British and other European invol ...
with clasp, and the
Khedive's Star The Khedive's Star was a campaign medal established by Khedive Tewfik Pasha to reward those who had participated in the military campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan between 1882 and 1891. This included British forces who served during the 1882 Anglo- ...
. He had mastered of Arabic including dialects. He died at
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 metro ...
on 1 December 1903.


Works


Unexplored Baluchistan
' (1882) describes: Floyer's journey of exploration from
Jask Jask ( fa, جاسک, Balochi: جاشک also Romanized as Jāsk; also Bandar-e Jask ( fa, بَندَرِ جاسک), ( Balochi: بندن ءِ جاشک) also Romanized as Bandar-e Jāsk) is a city and capital of Jask County, Hormozgan Province, Ir ...
to
Bampur Bampur ( bal, بُنپور, fa, بمپور, also Romanized as Bampūr and Bampoor) is a city in and capital of Bampur County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 9,073, in 1,664 families. Location It is ...
; a tour in the Persian Gulf; and a journey of exploration from Jask to
Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...
via Angohran. There are appendices on dialects of Western Baluchistan and on plants collected. Floyer described his Egyptian explorations in: ''The Mines of the Northern Etbai''; ''Notes on the Geology of the Northern Etbai''; ''Further Routes in the Eastern Desert of Egypt''; and ''Journeys in the Eastern Desert of Egypt''.''Proceedings Royal Geographical Society'' 1884 and 1887 His official publication was ''Étude sur la Nord-Etbai entre le Nil and la Mer Rouge'' (Cairo, 1893). He contributed papers on antiquarian, botanical, and agricultural matters to the ''Journal'' of the Institut Egyptien for 1894–6.


Family

Floyer married in 1887 Mary Louisa, eldest daughter of the Rev. William Richards Watson, rector of Saltfleetby St. Peter, Lincolnshire. They had three sons.


Notes


External links


''Encyclopædia Iranica'' page
;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Floyer, Ernest Ayscoghe 1852 births 1903 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School British colonial officials English explorers 19th-century English writers