Journalist, author, translator. Born in Rawitsch, Duchy of Posen; son of a German officer. Educated in Bonn. For a time edited Banner Zeitung, Published Polenlieder, 1843; Gedichte, :845. Married an Englishwoman. In 1846 went to London, where, in time, he became connected with the Daily News and the Times. In 1854 served as war correspondent in the Crimea (his H.W. article "Heroes Afloat" recounts his voyage to the seat of war). Contributed to Saturday Review and to Fraser's. Published, in London, translations from the Hungarian and the German: Eötvös's Village Notary and Klapka's Memoirs of the War of Independence in Hungary; an anthology of Goethe's Opinions, compiled from the correspondence and conversations; Max Schlesinger's Saunterings in and about London. Also published original works, e.g., History of the War in Hungary in 1848 and 1849, 1859, dedicated to the Hon. Mrs. Norton; Prussia and the Poles, 1862; Ten Years of the Schleswig-Holstein Question, 1863. Died in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where he was newspaper editor in his later years.

The only Office Book notation on revision of Wenckstern's contributions is that "Troops and Jobs in Malta" was "The result of a great pile of MS".

Wenckstern's first two contributions were included in the Putnam volume of selections from H.W.: The World Here and There,1852.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.