GEORGE PALMER EVELYN (August 21, 1823 - March 18, 1889) was an English officer who served in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, and whose private records of the war were discovered in the form of his di...view moreGEORGE PALMER EVELYN (August 21, 1823 - March 18, 1889) was an English officer who served in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, and whose private records of the war were discovered in the form of his diary by the Hon. Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys.
Born the second of six sons and a relative of “one of the most famous of all writers of diaries,” John Evelyn of Wotton, George Palmer Evelyn attended Cheam School in January 1835 and left in December 1837, aged 14.
Before his Crimean experience, he served as an officer of the Rifle Brigade in North America and at the Cape of Good Hope. He also served in the Boer War of 1848.
Evelyn left the regular Army around 1853 and became colonel of the 3rd Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment (formerly 1st Royal Surrey Militia), and a Justice of the Peace.
He received a medal with four clasps for the Crimean War, and a Turkish decoration.
He died in London in 1889, aged 65, and is buried at Wotton.view less