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Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (12 September 1812 – 17 January 1878) was anEnglish historian and jurist.
The son of a land agent, he was born inBexley,Kent,England, and educated atEton College (where he won theNewcastle Scholarship in 1831) andKing's College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1837[1] and appointed assistant judge at the Westminster sessions court.[2]
In 1840, he began teaching history at theUniversity of London and wrote a number of historical books includingThe Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1851).
Creasy was knighted in 1860 and spent the next decade and a half in Ceylon asChief Justice of Ceylon (1860 to 1875). He then returned in poor health to England and died in London on 17 January 1878.
While in Ceylon, he served as president of theCeylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1861 to 1864.[3] In July, 1864 Creasy founded theColombo Rowing Club.
Creasy's best known contribution to literature is hisFifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1851). HistorianJohn Keegan characterized it inThe Face of Battle as "one of the great Victorian best-sellers, rivalling Darwin'sOrigin of Species . . . republished thirty-eight times in the forty-three years between 1851 and 1894."[4] The reason that Creasy gives for the significance of many of the fifteen battles is that they denied Eastern peoples access to European soil.[citation needed] Other battles are seen as "decisive" because they shaped the development of Britain, which was the world's leading power at the time of writing.[citation needed]
Other works are:
Old Love and the New (1870) was a novel. WithJohn Sheehan andRobert Gordon Latham, Creasy took part in contributing toBentley's Miscellany, the political squibs in verse known as theTipperary Papers.[5]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1888). "Creasy, Edward Shepherd". InStephen, Leslie (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 13. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 64.
Media related toEdward Shepherd Creasy at Wikimedia Commons
Works by or aboutEdward Shepherd Creasy atWikisource
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