Author: Longmore, George
Biography:
LONGMORE, George (1793-1867: Bentley)
pseudonym Launcelot LONGSTAFF
Longmore's father--also George--was a Scottish army physician of progressive views who emigrated to Canada and married Christiana Laetitia Cox, daughter of the lieutenant-governor of the Gaspé. The couple settled in Quebec City, where they raised ten children. The younger George was sent to a military college in England and joined the Royal Staff Corps in 1809. In 1819 his unit was posted to Lower Canada, where his first volume of poetry was published in 1824. Shortly after publication, he sailed for England with his wife Elizabeth (probably a niece of one of his commanding officers, Sir Benjamin D'Urban) and two children. On later postings in Great Britain and South Africa, he published a play and several more volumes of verse, notably The Missionary (1839) and four other titles from the 1850s, all of which were printed in Cape Town, where he died in 1867. (D. M. R. Bentley, "Introduction" to George Longmore, The Charivari [1991] 1-30; DCB 22 Nov. 2019)
Other Names:
- Captain Longmore