BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 381 



William died on the 19 th of November 1883, in 

 his sixtieth year, of a slowly developed and scarcely 

 noticed disease of the heart. His almost sudden death 

 overtook him at the height of his activity. Already 

 all the honours had been heaped upon William, which 

 a savant and engineer can obtain in England. He 

 was repeatedly president of the foremost scientific and 

 technical societies, amongst others first president of 

 the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians 

 founded by himself. The highest recognitions and 



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prizes accorded by these societies were awarded 

 him. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge made 

 him honorary doctor; and he received the honour of 

 knighthood at the hands of the Queen. His death 

 was felt throughout England as a national calamity, 

 and was as such lamented in all the newspapers. The 

 funeral service took place with befitting solemnity in 

 Westminster Abbey. A year after his death a window 

 was dedicated to his memory in the Abbey, presented 

 by the scientific and technical associations of England, 

 the leading English men of science and representatives 

 of technical industry taking part in the proceedings. 

 His deeply afflicted wife retired to her beautiful 

 country house, which the forethought of her husband 

 had bequeathed her, at Sherwood, near Tunbridge 

 Wells, there to mourn her lost happiness. We brothers, 

 and I in particular for William was to me more 

 than a brother felt his unexpected death as a 

 severe blow, which the lapse of now nearly ten years 

 can soften but not expel from memory. 



