Henry Wemyss Feilden

Colonel Henry Wemyss Feilden, CB (6 October 1838 – 8 June 1921) was a British Army officer, Arctic explorer and naturalist.

Biography Feilden was the second son of Sir William Henry Feilden (1812−1879), 2nd Baronet of Feniscowles. Feilden was born at Newbridge Barracks in County Kildare where his father was then serving in the 17th Lancers. He was educated at Cheltenham College. After joining the Black Watch, at the age of nineteen, he fought in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny 1857-58 and at the Taku Forts in China in 1860. He served as assistant adjutant-general with the remnant of the Army of Tennessee under General Joseph E. Johnston and was present at the surrender at Bennett Place. He was decorated for his service in India, China and South Africa, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for his services to Imperial Yeomanry in 1900.

Feilden also collected information on the geology, flora and fauna of newly explored areas, and served as naturalist on Sir George Nares' British Arctic Expedition of 1875–76 on board Alert. During his service in Pegu, he contributed notes on the birds of the region to Allan Octavian Hume. He was a fast friend of the famous writer and poet Rudyard Kipling.

In 1864, Feilden married Julia, daughter of Judge David James McCord (1797–1855) of South Carolina. He had no children.

Works Nares, G.S., Feilden, H.W., 1878. Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea During 1875-6 in H.M. Ships Alert ̓and Discovery (sections on Ethnology, Mammalia and Ornithology, and Geology jointly with Charles Eugene De Rance)