Frederick Boyle (1841–1914) was an English author, journalist, barrister, and orchid fancier.
Early life and travels Born in Stoke-on-Trent, Boyle was a nephew of Joseph Meyer. He matriculated in 1859 as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, Oxford,s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Boyle, Frederick and was called to the bar in 1866.s:Men-at-the-Bar/Boyle, Frederick In 1863, he went to Sarawak with his brother: this visit provided material for a book,Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo (1865) and chapters in several other volumes of travel accounts from Asia, South Africa, and Central and South America.A ride across a continent: a personal narrative of wanderings through Nicaragua and Costa Rica (1868)To the Cape for diamonds (1873)Through Fanteeland to Coomassie: a diary of the Ashantee expedition (1874)Camp Notes (1874)The Savage Life (1876)Chronicles of No-man's land (1880)Legends of my bungalow (1882)Camp Notes (2nd ed., 1882)On the borderland (1884)From the Frontier (1894) In 1866 he donated to the British Museum a large number of archeological artefacts he had collected while travelling in Nicaragua.British Museum collection
Writer He also published a number of novels.Fools of Fortune, 1877The Golden Prime, 1882A Good Hater, 1885An English Vendetta, 1887Her Evil Genius, 1887 (there was an argument with Wilkie Collins about the title)The Treasure of Thorburns, 1892The Prophet John. A romance, 1894 and a variety of articles in journals Memoirs of Thomas Dodd, William Upcott, and George Stubbs, R.A 1879 The memoir of Thomas Dodd was first published in Temple Bar, July 1876 under title: The last of the grand school of connoisseurs; that of William Upcott in May 1876 under title: The father of fashion; and "George Stubbs," in December 1876 of the same magazine.A Thanksgiving for Orchids, The Nineteenth Century, Oct 1892The Gardening and Forestry Exhibition, The National Observer, 1893A Fetish City, Tales from Blackwood Vol 9Contemporary Human Gods, The New Review, 1897The Capacity of Savages, Macmillan's Magazine, 1899Our National Complexion, Cornhill Magazine, 1913
He described himself as a barrister and journalist in census records from 1871 to 1901; in 1911 he just did 'literary work'. He was a newspaper correspondent in the Russo-Turkish war, and was a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph, the Pall Mall Gazette and periodicals such as All the Year Round, Blackwood's, Cornhill, The Illustrated London News, Temple Bar, The New Review, and The Nineteenth Century. He collaborated with Ashmore Russan on three titles serialised in the Boy's Own Paper and later published as books.The Orchid Seekers (1893)Through Forest and Plain (1895)The Riders (1896)
Later life In later life he wrote a number of books about orchids, which he kept as a hobby.About Orchids (1893)The Woodlands Orchids (1901)The culture of greenhouse orchids (1902) He committed suicide in Bayswater Road, Westminster, London, in April, 1914, when 'much depressed'.Former War Correspondent's Death, Manchester Evening News, 2 May 1914
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