William A. Chanler

Who was William A. Chanler?

William Astor "Willie" Chanler, Sr. was a soldier, explorer, and politician who served as U.S. Representative from New York. He was third son of John Winthrop Chanler of the Dudley–Winthrop family and Margaret Astor Ward of the Astor family. Through his father, he was a great-great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant and a great-great-great-great-grandson of Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley. Through his mother, he was a grandnephew of Julia Ward Howe, John Jacob Astor III, and William Backhouse Astor, Jr..

By the age of 27, he had already spent three years exploring East Africa, after which he embarked on a brief political career. Chanler regarded it as an American obligation to be on the side of the people who fought for their independence, and during his life he participated in rebellions and independence struggles in Cuba, Libya and Somalia and provided support for insurgents in Venezuela, Turkey, and China. He maintained an active lifestyle even after losing his right leg in 1915. Late in life he became a novelist and an outspoken anti-Semite.