384 
G. C. Churchill.— The death, in his eighty-fifth year, of 
Mr. G. C. Churchill, which occurred at Clifton on 11 October, 
1006, has deprived Kew of an old and tried friend.* 
George Cheetham Churchill was born at Nottingham, where 
his father was a manufacturer, on 25 September, 1822. The 
branch of the Churchill family to which he belonged had not 
been long resident in Nottingham ; it migrated there from 
Northampton where an ancestor had settled in the seventeenth 
century on his marriage with a daughter of Sir William Fleet- 
wood of Aldw inkle near that town. Sir William's younger 
brother Charles, a Parliamentary General, married the eldest 
daughter of Oliver Cromwell. Churchill's mother was a daughter 
of George Cheetham of Stalybridge, whose nephew of the same 
name now represents that borough. 
Churchill's father was drowned in the wreck of the Forfarshire 
off the Fame Islands in 1838, leaving his son, at the age of 16, to 
make his way in the world. Sin her's death, 
Churchill, who had been educated at private schools in Nottingham, 
was articled to a local firm of solicitors, one of whose partners then 
acted as Town Clerk of Nottingham. At the close of his articled 
term, Churchill continued his legal training in the office of a 
solicitor in London. 
Even as a boy Churchill appears to have been inclined to 
pursuits. As a youth he was keenly interested in 
entomology, made a cor t butterflies, moths, 
and beetles, and was able to extend the known range of more than 
one species. Shortly after the completion of his legal training he 
devoted some time to the study of land treatment. :i snbject to which 
he was attracted by his interest in the agricultural experiments 
carried on by Mr. (afterwards Sir) J. Lawes, and Dr. (afterwards 
Sir) J. H. Gilbert ; an artist brother of the latter, Mr. Josiiih ( J i I ht-n, 
became one of his most intimate friends. From this period 
ot study may be dated the interest that Churchill took in 
geology. 
In 1853 Churchill married Anna Maitland, daughter of the Rev. 
G Laurie, of Camberwell, a lady of artistic and musical talent, in 
full sympathy with her husband's scientific pursuits. After his 
marriage he resumed legal work and settled in Manchester, where 
™ 2 if 6 f i year f he was a 811cc ©ssful solicitor. But though 
• U1 " X ;V V 1 :- lt V' r - ';' ' iil! 1 V ,t «*** care for the work, and it 
SSIi him when m 1863 his increased income enabled 
Mm to abandon practice and give all his attention to science. 
h£»Z^l 6 JZ i0d ° f hiS aCtiVe Passional life in Manchester, 
towards botany ; he became more and more ao in timo went on 
anO^omme need the for mation^ private herbarium, Bplcimene 
^■SSS^^^S^f^^^^ ■■*»—■ of W 
to all of wlm-. Lloyd Morgan, 
