Heene Hallmark
James Creagh 1836 - 1910
Soldier and Travel Writer
Author and Irishman, Captain James Creagh was awarded both The Turkish Medal and The Crimea Medal with a Sebastopol Clasp during his service with the Royal Scots. Author of more than 4 books about his life and travels including: 'A scamper to Sebastopol and Jerusalem', 'Over the borders of Eslamiah', 'Armenians Koords and Turks' and his autobiography: 'Sparks and campfires'.
Biography
James Creagh was born in Cahirbane, County Clare, Ireland in 1836 to Royal Navy Captain James Creagh and his wife Grace Emily Moor.
In 1851 he was a gentleman cadet at army officer training school, Sandhurst in Berkshire. Having bought his commission, James was soon in the deep end of army life and found himself at the siege of Sebastopol. He gained a Crimea medal with a Sebastopol Clasp.
It is reported that he married an 'Indian Lady' in 1857 and his son James was born. I can find no further reports of his wife or son.
James travelled widely in the middle East and wrote about his experiences and was profoundly interested in different religions. His books include:
A scamper to Sebastopol and Jerusalem (1872)
Over The Borders Of Christendom And Eslamiah: A Journey Through Hungary, Slavonia, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, And Montenegro, To The North Of Albania, In The Summer Of 1875; Volume 1 .This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
Armenians, Koords and Turks (1880) or the past, present and future of Armenia.
Sparks from Camp Fires - 1900. Captain Creagh's recollections are likely to prove of great interest at the present moment. His childhood was passed in Ireland, and he has much that is authentic to tell of the society portrayed in Lever's novels. Thence he went to school in England, and passed in due course into Sandhurst. His account of the conditions of life there and of the state of the Army in the years preceding the Crimean War is both detailed and graphic. He gives a vivid picture of the mismanagement before Sebastopol, of which he was himself an eye-witness, and the later chapters of his book deal with service in India in the years immediately following the Mutiny.
He married Marion Wardle in Westminster in 1888. Marion remarried after James' death in 1910 but chose to be buried alongside him (as Marion Bradford).
His brother, Charles Vandeleur Creagh, is mentioned in his probate document.