Conder was educated at
University College London and the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He became a
lieutenant in the
Corps of Royal Engineers in 1870. He carried out
survey work in
Palestine in 1872–1874, latterly in conjunction with Lt Kitchener, later
Lord Kitchener, whom he had met at school, and was seconded to the
Palestine Exploration Fund from 1875 to 1878 and again in 1881 and 1882, when he was promoted to captain. He retired with the rank of colonel in 1904. Conder joined the
expedition to Egypt in 1882, under
Sir Garnet Wolseley, to suppress the
rebellion of
Urabi Pasha. He was appointed a deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general on the staff of the intelligence department. In Egypt his perfect knowledge of Arabic and of Eastern people proved most useful. He was present at the action of
Kassassin, the
Battle of Tel el-Kebir, and the advance to
Cairo, but then, seized with typhoid fever, he was invalided home. For his services he received the war medal with clasp for Tel el-Kebir, the
Khedive's bronze
star and the fourth class of the
Order of the Medjidie. While surveying the area of
Safed in July 1875, Conder and his party were attacked by local residents and Conder sustained a serious
head injury which left him bedridden for a while and unable to return to Palestine. The work of surveying the country of Palestine commenced again only in late February 1877, without Conder. ==Publications==