Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy

Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
	Esterhazy, c. 1893-1898
Birth name	Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
Born	16 December 1847; Paris, France
Died	21 May 1923 (aged 75); Harpenden, England, UK
Allegiance	France ; Germany
Service/branch	French Army
Years of service	1870–1898
Rank	Major
Unit	French Foreign Legion; 74th Line Infantry Regiment
Battles/wars	Franco-Prussian War

Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy (16 December 1847 – 21 May 1923) was an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898. He gained notoriety as a spy for the German Empire and the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused and convicted in 1894.^[1]

After evidence against Esterhazy was discovered and made public, he was eventually subjected to a closed military trial in 1898, only to be officially found not guilty. Esterhazy retired from the military with the rank of major in 1898—presumably under pressure—and fled by way of Brussels to the United Kingdom, where he lived in the town of Harpenden in Hertfordshire until his death in 1923.^[2]

^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dreyfus, Alfred" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 579.
^ “ESTERHAZY, Ferdinand” in Register of Deaths for the St Albans Registration District, volume 3a (1923), p. 7143

[EB1911-1] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dreyfus, Alfred" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 579.

[2] “ESTERHAZY, Ferdinand” in Register of Deaths for the St Albans Registration District, volume 3a (1923), p. 7143

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