Edward Jełowicki


Edward Bożeniec Jełowicki born 1803 in Hubnik Western Ukraine, died 10 November 1848 in Vienna, was a Polish landowner, decorated Colonel in the Polish army, insurgent, officer in the Foreign Legion and commander of the Vienna artillery. He was an engineer and inventor.
Descended from Ruthenian aristocracy, his family had been integrated into the Polish Szlachta and converted from Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism during the Republic of Two Nations. Edward was the eldest of four children and an alumnus of the Vienna Theresian Military Academy, after which he was elected Marshal of the Haisyn district. He took a leading part in the November Uprising in Ukraine, with his father and two brothers, until its undoing in 1831 when with his younger brother, Alexander, he evaded capture by escaping into Austria-Hungary. After much travel across Europe he pursued further studies such as the postgraduate École d’état-major in Paris and the Ecole Centrale Paris. In 1836 during a quiet spell in London, he designed and took out a British Patent on his Steam turbine. In Paris he frequented Adam Mickiewicz, whose Paris publisher was Edward's brother, Alexander Jełowicki. He also met with Frederic Chopin.
Caught up in the Spring of Nations that swept over Europe in 1848, he was executed in Vienna on the order of Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz. He left a widow and two children.