Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/316

O'Shaughnessy appointed to the army of the Meuse. When the 2nd and 3rd battalions of Clare were 'reformed' in 1698, he was appointed captain of the grenadiers of the battalion which was kept up from 1 April 1698. With his regiment, one of the most famous of the Irish brigade, he served in Germany in the campaigns of 1701–2; was present at the reduction of Kehl and the first battle of Hochstedt in 1703; and at the great battle there, otherwise known as Blenheim, the year after. In 1705 he served with the army of the Moselle. In 1706 he fought at Ramillies, and became major of Clare on 4 July, upon the death of Major John O Carroll, and lieutenant-colonel on 12 Sept. He was with his regiment in Flanders in 1707; at Oudenarde in 1708; at Malplaquet in 1709; at the defence of the lines of Arleux, Denain, Douay, Bouchain, and Quesnoy in 1710–12. Subsequently he served in the campaigns in Germany, including the sieges of Landau and Freiberg. He became a brigadier-general on 3 April 1721; was employed with the army of the Rhine in 1733, and was present at the siege of Kehl; served with the army of the Rhine in the campaigns of 1734–5, attaining the rank of major-general (marechal-de-camp) 1 Aug. 1734; served with the army in Flanders in 1742; commanded at Cambray during the campaign of 1743; and on 1 Nov. of that year was appointed to the command at Gravelines, where he died, without issue, on 2 Jan. 1744, aged 70, being then the oldest Irish major-general in the French service.

 O'SHAUGHNESSY, WILLIAM BROOKE (1809–1889), afterwards, director-general of telegraphs in India, was the son of Daniel O'Shaughnessy of Limerick, by his wife, whose maiden name was Boswell ; his uncle was dean of Ennis, and his great-uncle Roman catholic bishop of Killaloe. William was born at Limerick in 1809, but educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.D. in 1830. He then entered the East India Company's service, and was appointed assist ant-surgeon in Bengal on 8 Aug. 1833 ( and, Surgeons of India, p. 46). For some time he was physician to Sir Charles Theophilus, afterwards Baron Metcalfe [q. v.], at Agra; he became surgeon in 1848, and surgeon-major in 1861, and was also professor of chemistry in the medical college, Calcutta. While in Bengal he wrote numerous reports and tracts on various medical, chemical, and other subjects, but devoted his attention chiefly to the electric telegraph. Anxious to introduce it in India, he published a pamphlet giving the results of experiments in its working, in 1839, but received little official encouragement until the appointment of Lord Dalhousie in 1847. He was then employed to lay down an experimental line of telegraphs, and report on the result; its success led the directors in 1852 to sanction the immediate construction of telegraphs connecting Calcutta, Agra, Bombay, Peshawar, and Madras. O'Shaughnessy was appointed director-general of telegraphs in India, and was sent to England to collect men and materials. He returned to India and commenced the work in November 1853; such was his energy that the line between Calcutta and Agra, a distance of eight hundred miles, was in full working by March 1854; in February 1855 the telegraph extended 3,050 miles, connecting Calcutta directly with Agra, Bombay, and Madras, and in February 1856 this distance was extended to four thousand miles. O'Shaughnessy triumphed over innumerable difficulties — the lack of trained workmen, absence of bridges across wide rivers, and of roads through dense jungles. The main lines were barely completed before the mutiny broke out, and Lawrence bore emphatic testimony to the value of O'Shaughnessy's work when he stated that 'the telegraph saved India.'

O'Shaughnessy was knighted for his services in 1866, on a visit to England; after five years' further work in India, he retired to England in 1861. He had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 16 March 1843, and in 1861 he assumed by royal license the name Brooke. He died at Southsea on 10 Jan. 1889, having married thrice; his second wife, whom he married in 1835, was Margaret, daughter of Francis O'Shaughnessy of Curragh, co. Clare ; and his third was Julia Greenly, daughter of Captain John Sabine of the 23rd royal Welsh fusiliers.

Besides numerous separately issued tracts and contributions to various periodicals (see Royal Society's Catalogue, and Ronalds, Cat. of Scientific Papers), O'Shaughnessy published: 1. 'Manual of Chemistry,' Calcutta, 1841 ; 2nd ed. 1842. 2. 'The Bengal Dispensatory,' London, 1842, 8vo. 3. 'The Bengal Pharmacopoeia,' Calcutta, 1844, 8vo. He also published in 1831 a translation of Lugol's 'Essay on the Effects of Iodine in Scrofulous Diseases.' [Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Times, 11 Jan. 1889; Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review, 18 Jan. 1889; Electrical Engineer, 18 Jan. 1889; Lists of the Fellows of the Royal Society;