Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Floyer, Ernest Ayscoghe
FLOYER, ERNEST AYSCOGHE (1852–1903), explorer, born on 4 July 1852 at Marshchapel, Lincs., was eldest surviving son of the Rev. Ayscoghe Floyer (d. 1872) by his wife Louisa Sara (1830–1909), daughter of the Hon. Frederic John Shore of the Bengal Civil Service. His mother, who was granddaughter of John Shore, first Baron Teignmouth [q. v.], and survived her son, was a pioneer in the movement for the systematic class teaching of plain needlework in English elementary schools, was inspector of needlework under the London school board, founder of the London Institution for Advancement of Plain Needlework, and author of several text-books upon the subject. After education at Charterhouse from 1865 until 1869, Floyer served for seven years in the Indian telegraph service, being stationed on the coast of the Persian Gulf. On receiving his long leave, in January 1876, he started for the unexplored interior of Baluchistan. His journeys there occupied him until May 1877, and his observations and surveys earned him a reputation as a bold and intelligent explorer. His results were published in 'Unexplored Baluchistan' (1882), with illustrations and map. The narrative describes a journey of exploration from Jask to Bampur; a tour in the Persian Gulf, visiting the island of Henjan and other places; and a journey of exploration from Jask to Kirman via Anguhran. There are appendices on dialects of Western Baluchistan and on plants collected. In January 1878 he was appointed inspector-general of Egyptian telegraphs, a post which he held until his death. He so administered the department as to convert an annual loss into a substantial annual surplus. He induced the government to devote a portion of this to experiments in the cultivation of trees and plants upon the soil of the desert. He took charge of these experiments in the capacity of director of plantations, state railways and telegraphs of Egypt. He cultivated successfully cactus for fibre, casuarina for telegraph poles, Hyoscyamus muticus yielding the alkaloid hyoscyamine, and other plants. Having discovered nitrate of soda in a clay in Upper Egypt, he was appointed by the government to superintend the process of its extraction. At the same time he engaged in exploration. In 1884 he made a journey from Halfa to Debba, and in 1887 surveyed two routes between the Nile and the Red Sea in about N. lat. 26°. In 1891 he was appointed by the Khedive to the command of an important expedition in a more southern part of the same desert (about N. lat. 24°). In this expedition he rediscovered the abandoned emerald mines of Sikait and Zabbara which had been worked at various epochs from early times. As the result of Floyer's report these mines were reopened. The outcome of this expedition, antiquarian, scientific, and economic, is fully described in his official publication, 'Étude sur la Nord-Etbai entre le Nil and la Mer Rouge' (Cairo, 1893, 4to, with maps and illustrations). For services to the military authorities Floyer received the British medal 'Egypt, 1882,' with clasp 'The Nile, 1884–5,' and the Khedive's bronze star. Floyer, who was popular with his native employés, had a mastery of Arabic and possessed an ear for minute differences of dialect.
Floyer died at Cairo on 1 Dec. 1903. He married in 1887 Mary Louisa, eldest daughter of the Rev. William Richards Watson, rector of Saltfleetby St. Peter's, Lincolnshire, by whom he left three sons. Floyer described his Egyptian explorations in 'The Mines of the Northern Etbai' ('Trans. Roy. Asiatic Soc.' Oct. 1892); 'Notes on the Geology of the Northern Etbai' ('Trans. Geol. Soc' 1892, vol. xlviii.); 'Further Routes in the Eastern Desert of Egypt' ('Geogr. Journ.' May 1893); and 'Journeys in the Eastern Desert of Egypt' ('Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc' 1884 and 1887). To the 'Journal' of the 'Institut Egyptien' for 1894–6 he contributed many papers on antiquarian, botanical, and agricultural matters.
[Personal knowledge; Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc. April 1904.]