Percy Evans Freke

Who is Percy Evans Freke?

Percy Evans Freke was an Irish ornithologist and entomologist.

Freke was born in Dublin. Age 21, he enlisted in the 44th Essex Regiment, two years later, in 1887, he exchanged to the 18th Royal Irish Regiment and after serving two years in New Zealand he retired from the army and returned to Ireland. For seven years, from 1872 to 1879, Freke operated a tobacco plantation in Amelia County, Virginia, about 30 miles southwest of Richmond. He once more returned to Ireland and then in 1899 took up residence at Folkestone in Kent. He was, from 1883, a Corresponding Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union.