BRITISH OBITUARY 1912 55 i 



Wernhcr, interested not only in diamonds but in the gold mines of South Africa. In 1888, 

 when the Kimberley diamond mines were amalgamated by Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Bek, 

 he became a life governor of the De Beers Corporation. Beit was now a member of his firm, 

 and in 1889, When Forges retired, the name of the firm was changed to Wernher, Beit & Co. 

 (See E. B. in, 6593.) Out of his enormous fortune, Sir J. Wernher, who was created a bar- 

 onet in 1905, spent large sums on public objects, including education; he gave 10,000 to 

 the National Physical Laboratory, and together with Beit endowed the South African Uni- 

 versity with 500,000. 



A captain of industry died in Baron Furness (formerly Sir Christopher Furness), on 

 November loth. He was born on the 23rd of April 1852, the son of a provision merchant, 

 and entered the family business in 1870. By making a corner in food stuff s.whilst the French 

 fleet was blockading the mouth of the Elbe, he made a profit of over 50,000 for his firm 

 out of the provisioning of ships. In 1877 he left the business and inaugurated the Furness 

 line of steamships, and in 1891 he amalgamated with Withy & Co., iron and steel ship 

 builders, founding the great shipbuilding firm of Furness, Withy & Co. In 1898, with others, 

 he acquired extensive iron and steel works and founded the S. Durham Steel & Iron Co; 

 He had an interest in many other concerns, and was chief proprietor of a Liberal paper, the 

 North Mail. In 1908 he established a profit-sharing scheme for his workmen, but in 1910 

 its continuance was put to the vote and rejected by a majority. In 1891 he was elected 

 Liberal member for the Hartlepools, but in 1895 he lost the seat, winning it again in 1900. 

 In 1906 he was returned unopposed, and in January 1910 he was elected but unseated on 

 petition. A month later he was raised to the peerage; he had been knighted in 1895. 



No fewer than four ex-Lord Mayors of London died during the year, three of whom had 

 sat as Conservatives in the House of Commons: 



Sir Joseph Dimsdale, Bart. (b. 1849; d. August loth), who came of a Quaker family of 

 bankers, was sheriff of London in 1894, and from 1900-06 was M.P. for theCity. In 1901-02, 

 King Edward's coronation year, he was Lord Mayor; and from 1902 till he died he was City 

 Chamberlain. 



Sir Jiohn Whitaker Ellis, Bart. (b. 1829; d. September 2Oth), entered as a lad the office of 

 an auctioneer and:surveyor, and rose to be a partner and finally head of tnc firm; he was 

 Lord Mayor in 1881-82, and M.P. for a division of Surrey 1884-92. 



Sir Horatio David Davies (b. 1842; d. September i8th), was a London merchant, who in 

 1889 was elected an Alderman and in 1897-98 was Lord Mayor. From 1895-1906 he was 

 M.P. for Chatham. 



Sir James Thomson Ritchie, Bart. (b. 1835; d. September i8th), was the son of a Dundee 

 jute merchant, and carried on the same business in London. Hi$ younger brother was Lord 

 Ritchie, the Conservative politician (see E. B. xxiii, 376b). He was elected an Alderman 

 in 1891, and became Lord Mayor in 1903-04. 



Mechanical science lost the following important representatives : : 



Prof. Osborne Reynolds; b. 1842; d. February 2ist. He was educated at Cambridge, 

 and in 1868 became professor of Engineering at Owens College, Manchester, holding that 

 post for nearly forty years. He was elected F.R.S. in 1877. He was the author of over 70 

 papers on mechanics and physics published in the transactions of learned societies, notably 

 Sub-Mechanics of the Universe, issued by the Royal Society. (For references to his work 

 see E. B. iii, 58ic; v, 643; viii, 783a; xiv, 6ic; xxii, 8o6c; xxv, 4440; xxviii, 428d.) 



Prof. Henry Taylor Bovey; b. 1852; d. November 2nd. He was educated at Queens' 

 College, Cambridge, of which he was afterwards a Fellow. Joining the staff of the Mersey 

 Docks and Harbour Board, he became assistant engineer, but in 1887 was appointed Pro- 

 fessor of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at McGill University, Montreal. In 

 1909 he was appointed to be the first Rector of the Imperial College of Science arid Tech- 

 nology in London, but ill-health obliged him to resign the post after a few months. 



Valuable work in a special branch of science had also been done by the Rev. Francis 

 Bashforth (b. 1819; d. February I2th). Second Wrangler in 1843, he became a Fellow of 

 St. John's College, Cambridge; and having taken orders, he was rector of Minting (Lincoln- 

 shire) from 1857-1908. His interest in ballistics led him to make a series of experiments 

 between 1864-80, upon which our present knowledge of air-resistance is founded (sec E. B. 

 iii, 28ia). The Bashforth Chronograph for recording the velocity of shot (see E. B. vi, 3633). 

 was his invention, and he received a pension from the government and a grant of 2,000 for 

 his work. For some time he was professor of Applied Mathematics to the advanced class of 

 Artillery officers at Woolwich. 



Samuel Arthur Saunder, b. 1852, d. December 8th, was one of the leading authorities 

 on Selenography (sec E. B. xxi, 5253). 



A well-known naturalist passed away in William Bernhard Tegetmeier; b. 1816; d. No- 

 vember igth. His special subject was poultry-breeding, on which he wrote in the 9th ed. of 

 the E. B.; and for forty years he was the poultry-editor of The Field. 



Rowland Ward, b. 1848, d. December 28th, author of Record of Big Game, was famous 

 all over the world as a taxidermist. 



An eminent Scottish ichthyologist and palaeontologist died in Ramsay Heatley Traqu- 

 air; b. 1840; d. November 24th (see E. B. xiv, 248b, 249c). 



