Bennet Burleigh

Bennet Graham Burley (c. 1840 – June 17, 1914 ) was a Scottish-born pirate, Confederate spy and journalist. Later in life, he changed his surname to Burleigh and became a celebrated war correspondent for London's The Daily Telegraph.

Biography Born in Glasgow, he joined the British Legion of Giuseppe Garibaldi at the age of 20 and took part in the Expedition of the Thousand. After returning to the United States, he began work as a shipping clerk. Shortly afterwards, in March 1861, he was forced to marry one of the family's servants after getting her pregnant. Burley left for North America with another clerk to take part in the American Civil War. He joined the Confederates, disrupting Union ship traffic.

In 1881, Burleigh was hired by the London Telegraph to cover the war in Sudan. Burleigh was the first to report the failure of the Gordon relief expedition, which led to the slaughter of the Khartoum garrison.

Burleigh covered the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 initially from a fervently pro-Greek perspective, but becoming disillusioned as the war went on and Greece lost. In the Balkan Wars, his pro-Greek attitude was seemingly revived, as he reported favourably on Greece's military successes.

He also covered the Boer War

Burleigh ran unsuccessfully several times for Glasgow seats in the British parliament. The Natal Campaign, 1900 Empire of the East; or, Japan and Russia at war, 1904-5, 1905 Greaves, Graeden: Wild Bennet Burleigh: The Pen and the Pistol. 2012