Lewis Lochée

Lewis Lochée (died 8 June 1791) was a military author born in the Austrian Netherlands. Between the 1770s and his death in 1791 he was the proprietor and master of a Military Academy in Little Chelsea, Middlesex.

Little Chelsea (top left), in
Roque's Map of London, 1746

Early life

When Lochée was naturalized as a British subject by an Act of Parliament on 8 May 1780, he said he was the son of John and Theresa Lochée, had been born at Brussels in the Province of Brabant, and had "constantly professed the true Protestant Religion",[1] but apart from this his origins remain obscure.[2]

Life in England

On 26 August 1767, Lochée married Elizabeth Dubourg at St James's, Westminster.[3]

Lochée lived in Chelsea from 1770 until not long before his death, establishing there what he called the Royal Military Academy, for the training of infantry and cavalry officers, of which he was Master. 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 Royal Military College. 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."[4] 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. His son Arthur Middleton was one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence. There Lochée continued his Military Academy.[2]

On 16 October 1784, from Lochée’s property in Chelsea there was a pioneering ascent by two balloonists, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Sheldon.[2]

Lochée’s notable students included General John Whitelocke (1757–1833).[5]

On 1 March 1790, in The Times, Lochée announced that he had retired and closed his Military Academy in Chelsea and was selling various effects, including carriages and library bookcases.[6]

Death in Flanders

Lochée died at Lille, after fighting as an officer in the military campaign of the United Belgian States to free Brabant from Austrian control.[7] His death was recorded in The Gentleman's Magazine in June 1791:

"At Lisle, in Flanders, Lewis Lochee esq. late Lieutenant Colonel of the Belgic Legion, and formerly keeper of the Royal Military Academy at Chelsea".[8]

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.[9]

Selected publications
  • Lewis Lochée, A System of Military Mathematics Volume 1 (1776)
  • Lewis Lochée, An Essay on Military Education (1776)
  • Lewis Lochée, An Essay on Castrametation (1778)
  • Lewis Lochée, Elements of Field Fortification: By Lewis Lochee (1783)
  • 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
  1. "DENIZATIONS 1780" in Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, Volumes 27-30 (1923), p. 186
  2. 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
  3. FHL Film Number 1042317, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 24 June 2020 (subscription required)
  4. Kevin Linch, Matthew McCormack, Britain's Soldiers: Rethinking War and Society, 1715-1815 (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 33–34
  5. "Whitelocke, John", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2007)
  6. "Mr. LEWIS LOCHEE, retiring", public announcement in The Times (London), 1 March 1790
  7. Yearbook - Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, Issue 1 (Phaidon, 1969), p. 159
  8. "Obituary of considerable Persons" in The Gentleman's Magazine, June 1791, p. 588, column 1
  9. "Last Will and Testament of Louis Lochee of Little Chelsea in the County of Middlesex Esquire" at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 27 June 2020 (subscription required)
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