Edward Bruce Hamley Lieutenant - General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley KCB KCMG ( 27 April 1824 – 12 August 1893 ) was a British general and military writer and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892 . Early life . Hamley was the youngest son of Vice - Admiral William Hamley , born at Bodmin , Cornwall , and entered the Royal Artillery in 1843 . Career . Hamley was promoted captain in 1850 , and in 1851 went to Gibraltar , where he began his literary career by contributing articles to magazines . He served throughout the Crimean campaign as " aide - de - camp " to Sir Richard Dacres , commanding the artillery , taking part in all the operations with distinction , and becoming successively major and lieutenant - colonel by brevet . He also received the CB and French and Turkish orders . During the war Hamley contributed to " Blackwood ' s Magazine " an admirable account of the progress of the campaign , which was afterwards republished . The combination in Hamley of literary and military ability secured for him in 1859 the professorship of military history at the new Staff College at Sandhurst , from which in 1866 he went to the council of military education , returning in 1870 to the Staff College as commandant . From 1879 to 1881 Hamley was British commissioner successively for the delimitation of the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria , Ottoman Empire in Asia and the Russian Empire , and Ottoman Empire and Greece , and was rewarded with the KCMG . Promoted colonel in 1863 , he became a lieutenant - general in 1882 , when he commanded the 2nd division of the expedition to Egypt under Lord Wolseley , and led his troops in the Battle of Tel el - Kebir , for which he received the KCB , the thanks of Parliament , and 2nd class of the Order of Osminieh . Hamley considered that his services in Egypt had been insufficiently recognized in Lord Wolseley ' s despatches , and expressed his indignation freely , but he had no sufficient ground for supposing that there was any intention to belittle his services . Later life . From 1885 until his death on 12 August 1893 Hamley was Member of Parliament for Birkenhead in parliament in the Conservative interest . He was promoted to general in 1890 . Hamley is buried in Brompton Cemetery , London . Writings . Hamley was a clever and versatile writer . His principal work , " The Operations of War " , published in 1867 , became a text - book of military instruction . It was praised by the German General Helmuth von Moltke , Chief of the Prussian General Staff , and until 1894 it was the sole text used in the entrance examination for the Camberley Staff College . He also published some pamphlets on national defence , was a frequent contributor to magazines , and the author of several novels , of which perhaps the best known is " Lady Lee ' s Widowhood " . " The War in the Crimea " was published in 1891 by Seeley and Co . , London . Within this publication , was a complete overview of events leading up to the war in the Crimea all the way through to the close of the war . Some of his contemporaries , many of them members of General Wolseley ' s " ring " of confidantes , considered him too rigid or opinionated in his views . Field Marshal Evelyn Wood wrote that " Hamley expected his students to accept his deductions as well as his facts , and did not encourage original research " .