|A very large Woodbury-type photograph of Sir Charles Warren taken from an unidentified publication.
Born in 1840, Charles Warren was educated at Cheltenham College, from which he proceeded to Sandhurst and Woolwich.
He was gazetted in 1857 in the Royal Engineers, was given his company in 1869, and six years later became Major and
Between 1867 and 1870 Captain Warren carried out the explorations in Palestine which form the basis for our knowledge of
the topography of ancient Jerusalem and the archaeology of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sherif. This first major expedition
of the Fund, in addition to the information it provided concerning Jerusalem, served to raise the public interest in the work of
the Fund sufficiently such that £60,000 was raised by public subscription to carry out the great Survey of Western Palestine.
In addition to his explorations on, under, and around the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sherif, Warren surveyed the Plain of
Philistia and carried out a very important reconnaissance of central Jordan.
After this he was sent to South Africa where during the next few years it fell to him to settle many difficult questions in
connection with the boundary of the British possessions, which he did with the utmost tact and diplomacy. Returning to
England in 1880, he was appointed Instructor of Surveying at Chatham, but in 1882 he again returned to Africa, where he
established the claims of Great Britain over the disputed territory known as British Bechuanaland. After holding command of
the garrison in Suakim (1886) he was recalled to England the same year to be Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
- a position which he resigned in 1888 through disagreements with the Home Office. It was during his tenure as Commissioner
that the Whitechapel section London was plagued by the series of still unsolved grisly murders attributed to the infamous
Jack the Ripper. In fact his resignation took place on the same day that the last of the Ripper's victims, Mary Kelly was
discovered. In the following year he went to Singapore, where he commanded the troops in the Straits Settlements for five
During the Boer War, now a Lieutenant-General, he commanded the 5th Division of the South African Field Force. His first
failure at Spion Kop was the subject of much controversy, but on the resumption of the offensive in Natal he succeeded in
forcing a crossing of the Tugela River and in winning an action at Pieters Hill which paved the way for the relief of Ladysmith.
He later held an important administrative post in Cape Colony. He was promoted General in 1904, and the next year was
placed on the retired list. He was an avid Freemason and first Master of the First Lodge founded with the aim of conducting
After his retirement he took a keen interest in the Church Lads' Brigade and was a pioneering Scoutmaster in the movement
founded by his friend and military colleague, Lord Baden-Powell.
13 1/2 inches by 9 3/4 inches (34 cm x 24 cm)
Barraud - Photographer
263 Oxford Street, London & 92 Bold Street, Liverpool, England