Ralph Payne-Gallwey
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Sir Ralph William Frankland Payne-Gallwey, 3rd Baronet (1848–1916) was an English engineer, historian, ballistics expert, and artist.
Life
The son of Sir William Payne-Gallwey, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Emily Anne, a daughter of Sir Robert Frankland-Russell, 7th Baronet, the young Payne-Gallwey was educated at Eton College. In 1881, he inherited from his father the Thirkleby Hall estate in the North Riding of Yorkshire.[1]
He married Edith Alice Usborne. Their son William Payne-Gallwey was a soldier and first-class cricketer who was killed in action during the First World War.[2] As a result of that, Payne-Gallwey decided to sell his Yorkshire estate.[1]
Works
Payne-Gallwey began by writing books on sport. Early works included The Book of Duck Decoys (1886) and Letters to Young Shooters (1892). His The Crossbow appeared in 1903,[3] and his High Pheasants in Theory and Practice in 1913. In later life, he also turned to history and current affairs, with The Mystery of Maria Stella, Lady Newborough (1907), A History of the George Worn on the Scaffold by Charles I (1908) and The War, A Criticism (June, 1915). This was an appeal for conscription to be brought in, to greatly increase the size of the British Army.[4] The also compiled an unpublished manuscript on archery, including tables of flight distances, illustrations and photographs of bows, and information on Turkish and Chinese archery.[5]
Publications
- The Crossbow, Mediaeval and Modern, Military and Sporting; its Construction, History and Management, with a Treatise on the Balista and Catapult of the Ancients (London: Longmand Green & Co., 1903; reprinted by Holland of London, 1958; new edition by Skyhorse Publishing, 2007)
- The Fowler in Ireland, or Notes on the Haunts and Habits of Wildfowl and Seafowl: Including Instructions in the Art of Shooting and Capturing Them
- The Book of Duck Decoys: Their Construction, Management, and History (London: John van Voorst, 1886)
- Letters to Young Shooters (1892)
- The Mystery of Maria Stella, Lady Newborough (London: Edward Arnold, 1907)
- A History of the George Worn on the Scaffold by Charles I (London: Edward Arnold, 1908)
- High Pheasants in Theory and Practice (London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1913)
- The War, A Criticism (London: Spottiswoode & Co., 1915)
