Martin Petrie

Martin Petrie (1823–1892) was an English army officer and writer. Petrie, his wife and his daughter Mary Petrie were involved in the foundation of Westfield College. His other daughter Irene Petrie died as a missionary in Kashmir.

Life He was born on 1 June 1823, at the Manor House, King's Langley, Hertfordshire, the second son of Commissary-General William Petrie (died 1842); his mother Margaret was daughter and coheiress of Henry Mitton of the Chase, Enfield. He was brought up in Portugal and the Cape of Good Hope, where his father's career took him. As a young man he was mainly in France, Italy, and Germany.

On 14 April 1846 Petrie entered the army as an ensign in the Royal Newfoundland Corps, and served for 11 years in North America, becoming a lieutenant on 7 January 1848 and captain on 5 May 1854. On 26 January 1855 he was transferred to the 14th Foot regiment, and left Newfoundland on 20 March in the SS Vesta, which carried 24 passengers, seven of them, including Petrie, being officers on their way to join regiments in the Crimean War. When 300 miles off St. John's the vessel, already damaged by ice-floes, was caught in a storm, and the engine-room was flooded. Petrie managed to save the ship. His hands, however, were lacerated and frostbitten: he was invalided for some time, and could not proceed to the Crimea.

His daughter Irene Petrie decided she wanted to be a missionary. Her father forbade it.

Works In 1860, during his first year at the War Office, Petrie brought out a standard work in three volumes, The Strength, Composition, and Organisation of the Armies of Europe, giving the annual revenue and military expenditure of each country, with its total forces in peace and war. In 1863 he published a volume giving more detailed information on the British army, The Organisation, Composition, and Strength of the Army of Great Britain, which reached a fifth edition in 1867. Petrie also compiled two technical volumes, Equipment of Infantry and Hospital Equipment (1865–6), forming part of a series on army equipment. Eleanora Carus-Wilson (1897–1977), the Canadian-British economic historian, was the daughter of the Carus-Wilsons.