George Selwyn Marryat

George Selwyn Marryat (20 June 1840 – 14 February 1896) was a country gentleman and British angler most noted for his relationship with F. M. Halford, Francis Francis and the development of dry-fly fishing on the chalk streams of southern England. Upon his death in 1896, he became known as the "Prince of Fly Fishers". Early life He was born George Selwyn Marryat on 20 June 1840 at Chewton Glen in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. He was the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel George Marryat (1806–1871) and Georgiana Charlotte (née Selwyn) Marryat (1816–1860). George was the nephew of Royal Navy officer and novelist Frederick Marryat. In 1854, Marryat's family moved to Mapperton Manor, Dorset. In Dorset, on the River Frome at Maiden Newton, young Marryat learned to fish with the wet fly. He attended Winchester College from 1854 to 1858. Upon leaving Winchester, George gained a commission as a cornet in the Carabiniers on 16 March 1858. In October 1858, his regiment was posted to Meerut, India, to help quell the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The regiment returned to England in January 1862, and George was promoted, by purchase, to lieutenant. He sold his commission and resigned from the Army in 1865. Marryat married Lucy Dorothea Clinton (1843 – ?) in St George's, Hanover Square, London on 9 July 1872. They had four daughters: Mary Margaret, Dorothea Charlotte Edith, Joan O. Gladstone, and Alice Lucy. Alice died shortly before her first birthday. The Marryats lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, for two years before moving to Shedfield, Hampshire.