Lewis Lochée (died 8 June 1791) was a military author born in the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

. From the early 1770s, he was the proprietor and master of a military academy at

Little Chelsea Little Chelsea was a hamlet, located on either side of Fulham Road, half a mile southwest of Chelsea, London. The earliest references to the settlement date from the early 17th century, and the name continued to be used until the hamlet was surr ...

, at that time a rural hamlet near

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, in

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. After closing his academy in 1790, Lochée returned to the Netherlands to fight for the freedom of the

Province of Brabant The Province of Brabant (, ; ) was a province in Belgium from 1830 to 1995. It was created in 1815 as South Brabant, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1995, it was split into the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant, the French-speaki ...

from the

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. In 1791, shortly before his death in France, he published a history of the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

Early life

When Lochée was naturalised as a

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by an Act of Parliament on 8 May 1780, he said he was the son of John and Theresa Lochée, had been born at

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in the Province of Brabant, and had "constantly professed the true Protestant Religion"; apart from this, his origins remain obscure.J. E. O. Screen, "The 'Royal Military Academy' of Lewis Lochée" in ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research'', Vol. 70, No. 283 (Autumn 1992), pp. 143-156

Life in England

In the words of the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'' entry on Lochée, “It is unknown when or why he moved to England, though he was living in

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, Surrey, in 1767. He was possibly a political exile from Austrian rule and certainly a protestant.“ On 26 August 1767, Lochée married Elizabeth Dubourg at St James's, Westminster. Lochée owned and occupied property in Chelsea from 1770 until his death, Francis Henry Wollaston Sheppard, ''Southern Kensington, Brompton'' (Athlone Press, for the Greater London Council, 1983) p. 182 establishing there by 1773 what he called the Royal Military Academy, for the training of infantry and cavalry officers, of which he was Master. There, the sons of gentlemen were taught History, Geography, Tactics, Fortification, Mathematics, Map Reading, Military Sketching, and languages. This was after the foundation in 1741 of the Woolwich Military Academy, which was for training artillery and engineer officers, but long before the establishment in 1801 of the

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. At a time when most British army officers were trained privately, if at all, Lochée‘s academy taught its students "the Modern Languages and all the Military Sciences." In 1776 Lochée bought Hollywood Grove, a large brick house at Little Chelsea to the west of Hollywood Road, which had been owned by Henry Middleton, a planter in South Carolina and a landowner in Barbados, the father of Arthur Middleton, one of the signatories of the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

, also in 1776. There Lochée continued his academy, and over several years wrote and published books on military education. On 16 October 1784, from Lochée’s property in Chelsea, there was a pioneering ascent by two balloonists,

Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre rançoisBlanchard (; 4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon. Notable for his successful hydrogen balloo ...

and John Sheldon. Lochée’s notable students included General John Whitelocke (1757–1833). On 1 March 1790, in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', Lochée announced that he had retired and closed his military academy in Chelsea and was selling various effects, including carriages and library bookcases.

Brabant Revolution

After winding up his academy, Lochée fought as an officer in the military campaign of the

United Belgian States The United Belgian States ( or '; ; ), also known as the United States of Belgium, was a short-lived confederal republic in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) established under the Brabant Revolution. It existed from January to Dece ...

to free Brabant from Austrian control. On 18 May 1790 he was in command of Belgian forces in a battle at Ychipe. In June, after anonymous attacks were made on him regarding the battle, at

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

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he published a 45-page letter setting out his account of what had happened. In 1791, after the end of the unsuccessful Brabant Revolution, Lochée published two books about it. Shortly afterwards, he died at Lille: his death was recorded in ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1907, ceasing publication altogether in 1922. It was the first to use the term ''m ...

'' of June 1791:

Aftermath

Probate was granted on Lochée‘s Will dated 28 March 1787, in which he left his property equally between his wife, Elizabeth, and his son John Lochée, a minor."Last Will and Testament of Louis Lochee of Little Chelsea in the County of Middlesex Esquire"
at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 27 June 2020 In 1797 and 1798, Mrs Lochée and her son sold the large site of the former military academy in three parts, but the Lochée family continued owning other investment property in the locality until 1836.

Selected publications

*''An Essay on Military Education, by Lewis Lochée, Master of the Military Academy'' (London: Printed for J. Nource, in the Strand, 1773; reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2010, ) * Lewis Lochée, ''A System of Military Mathematics'' Volume 1 (1776); Volume 2 (1777) * Lewis Lochée, ''An Essay on Castrametation'' (1778) * Lewis Lochée, ''Elements of Fortification'' (1780) * Lewis Lochée, ''Elements of Field Fortification: By Lewis Lochee'' (1783) * Lewis Lochée, ''A Monsieur le Baron Schoenfeldt'' (Lille, 1790) * Lewis Lochée, ''Relation de ce qui c’est passé le 18 Mai entre les Autrichiens et les Patriotes, & particuliérement dans l'attaque du Village d‘Ychipe par les Autrichiens'' (1790) * Lewis Lochée, ''Histoire de la derniere révolution Belgique'' (Lille: J. Roelenbosch, 1791) * Lewis Lochée, ''Observations sur la Révolution Belgique, et réflexions sur un certain imprimé adressé au Peuple Belgique, qui sert de justification au Baron de Schoenfeldt, etc.'' (1791)

Notes

External links

* Lewis Lochée
''An Essay on Castrametation''
(1778, full text) * Lewis Lochée,
Relation de ce qui c’est passé le 18 Mai entre les Autrichiens et les Patriotes, &c.
' (1790, full text) * Lewis Lochée
Observations sur la Révolution Belgique
(1791, full text) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lochee, Lewis 1791 deaths Writers from Brussels Independence activists of the Brabant Revolution Year of birth unknown Date of birth unknown 18th-century British non-fiction writers