F. O. Oertel: Difference between revisions

Friedrich [Frederick] Oscar Emanuel Oertel was born 9 December 1862 in [[Hannover]], Germany.<ref>{{cite web|title=Oertel-Jaeger Family Website|url=http://www.jaeger-oberursel.de/6801.html|access-date=24 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919034559/http://jaeger-oberursel.de/6801.html|archive-date=19 September 2013|df=dmy-all}} The author of this page is thankful to Rolf Jaeger for having put to her disposal photos and letters from F.O. Oertel.</ref>  He renounced his German citizenship before leaving for India as a young man and was naturalised British.<ref>http://yourdemocracy.newstatesman.com/parliament/war/HAN2250178 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927014150/http://yourdemocracy.newstatesman.com/parliament/war/HAN2250178 |date=27 September 2013 }}; http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1916/nov/15/public-works-department#S5CV0087P0_19161115_HOC_9 | Retrieved 10 July 2013.</ref>  He married Margaret Haywood Lechmere (1882–1969) on 25 July 1903<ref>http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=rossbus&id=I36381 (retrieved 24 June 2013). See {{cite web |url=http://www.jaeger-oberursel.de/6801.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-04-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919034559/http://jaeger-oberursel.de/6801.html |archive-date=19 September 2013 |df=dmy-all }} for Margaret Lechmere-Oertel date of death.</ref> with whom he had two children. Retiring around 1920, he returned to England and from 1921 added the name of his wife to his own,<ref>As would appear from the "List of members of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland" published in 1921 and the following years.</ref>  thus publishing under the name of "F.O. Lechmere-Oertel". He died in [[New York (state)|New York]] on 22 February 1942.<ref>http://www.ancestry.co.uk/cs/uk/probate.</ref><ref>Confusion about his date of death is noted to this day: the Directory of British architects has him die in 1921 (''Directory'', vol.  2, pp. 27–28, with further references to 1921 publications), an evident misinterpretation probably caused by his retirement and his return to Europe. The date of 1931 is given without any further reference by Guha 2010, p. 249 (probably in that year he made a major donation to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge).  Mention of his decease, without any precise date being given, is made in the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'', October 1944, p. 213.</ref>

Oertel left Germany for India where he studied at the [[Thomason College of Civil Engineering]]  (now [[Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee]]).<ref>''The India List'' 1905, pp. 579–580.</ref> From March 1883 to March 1887 he was assistant engineer on railway and building construction for Indian Public Board, being posted to the [[North-Western Provinces]] and [[Oudh]]<ref>''Directory''  2001, p. 27; ''The India List'' 1905, p. 580.</ref>  before returning in 1887–1888 to England where he studied architecture under [[Richard Phené Spiers]].<ref>Oertel 1913, p. 378.</ref>  On his way back to Europe he was nearly killed on 17 April 1887 when the [[P&O Tasmania]] ([[:de:Tasmania (1884)|de]]) which he had boarded and which was sailing from Mumbai (Bombay) to [[Marseille]] sunk on the south-western coast of [[Corsica]].<ref>''The Times of Malta'' 16 December 1936, p. 10.</ref>