Background
He was born in London in 1807, of French parents. Was son of a French officer who fled to England after Bonaparte"s coup d"état in 1798.
He was born in London in 1807, of French parents. Was son of a French officer who fled to England after Bonaparte"s coup d"état in 1798.
He was educated in the Roman Catholic college at Penn, Buckinghamshire, and continued his studies long after leaving the institution.
He was a leading amateur British chess master. He entered commercial life at an early age, and was the owner of the first screw steamers to the Levant. In 1862, he purchased Heatherside, Surrey.
Gradually he withdrew from business and devoted most of his attention to literary pursuits.
Mr. Gladstone, in recognition of his merits, placed his name on the Civil Pension List. Mongredien died at Forest Hill, London, on 30 March 1888.
In 1859 Mongredien played a chess match against Paul Morphy. After drawing the first game, he lost the next seven on the trot, losing the match 7.5-0.5.
In 1862 he played in chess"s first international round-robin tournament (in which each participant plays every other) in London, finishing 11th of 14 with 3/13.
He had joined the National Political Union in 1831, and in 1872 he was elected a member of the Cobden Club, under the auspices of which society several of his treatises were published. He thoroughly grasped the free-trade question, and expounded his views on the most difficult problems of political economy with great lucidity.
In 1859, he became a member of the firm of H. J. Johnston & Company, and when it was broken up in 1864 he began as a cornbroker on his own accountant
He was a good musician and an excellent botanist, and was elected president of the Chess Club in 1839. He had a colloquial knowledge of seven languages, could recite many pages of the Koran, and spoke modern Greek like a native.