Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/235

 of Naval Architects, and served many years on its council. He became a member of the British Association in 1865 and he regularly attended the annual meetings for many years. He was president of section 'G' (mechanical science, afterwards engineering) in 1872 at Brighton, and again in 1884, when the association met at Montreal. In 1888 he was elected president of the Association at the Bath meeting, and in his address brilliantly vindicated the claims of applied science and technology. He was always a leading spirit at the convivial 'Red Lion' dinner, with which the more serious labours of the association were lightened. In 1874 he joined the Society of Arts, and for twenty-eight years he served continuously on its council, of which he was chairman in 1881 and 1882, giving an address on the first occasion on the industrial applications of science, and on the second occasion on the law of patents. He was president in the interval between King Edward VII' s resignation of the office on his accession in 1901 and the election of the Prince of Wales (King George V). In 1885 he became honorary secretary of the Royal Institution, and held the office till 1900, discharging its duties with the utmost regularity.

Bramwell was a liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company, having being apprenticed to his father 'to learn his art of a banker.' He was prime warden of the company 1877-8. As representative of the company on the council of the City and Guilds Institute for the promotion of technical education (established in 1878) he became the first chairman, and filled the post with energy and efficiency until his death. He was knighted on 18 July 1881 on the occasion of the laying of the first stone of the City and Guilds Institute by the Prince of Wales at South Kensington. He was also chairman of the Inventions Exhibition in 1885, the second of the successful series organised at South Kensington by Sir [q. v.].

In later life Bramwell was constantly employed by government on various departmental committees. When the ordnance committee was appointed in 1881 he was made one of its two lay members, and he continued in the post for life. Many honorary distinctions were accorded him. He was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society in 1873, and in 1877-8 served on its council. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Société des Ingénieurs Civils do France. He was made D.C.L. of Oxford in 1886 and of Durham in 1889; LL.D. of McGill (Montreal) University in 1884, and of Cambridge in 1892. He was created a baronet in 1889. Active to the last, Bramwell attended meetings at the Society of Arts and at the Institution of Civil Engineers within a month of his death, and was at work in his office on 10 Nov. 1903. He died on 30 Nov. 1903 at his residence, 1, Hyde Park Gate, from cerebral haemorrhage, and was buried at Hever in Kent, where he possessed a small property.

Despite his devotion to the cause of scientific and technical education, Bramwell's intellect was not cast in the scientific mould, and his interests were mainly confined to the practical applications of science, the developments of which he eagerly watched in his own time, and anticipated with something like prophetic insight. When, at the jubilee meeting of the British Association at York in 1881, he described the previous fifty years' progress in mechanical engineering, he predicted that in 1931, after another half-century, the internal combustion engine would have superseded the steam-engine, which by that time (he added with humorous exaggeration) would be looked upon as merely 'a curiosity to be found in a museum.' In 1903, realising that the rapid development of the new form of motor was confirming his prophecy, he sent to the president of the association, (Sir) James Dewar, 50l., to be invested so as to produce about 100l. by 1931, when that sum should be awarded for a paper which, taking as its text his utterances in 1881, should deal with the relation between steam engines and internal combustion engines in 1931.

Besides numerous contributions to the proceedings of societies, Sir Frederick was author of the article on James Watt in this Dictionary and of many letters to 'The Times,' sometimes in his own name, sometimes (after the death of his brother, who used the same initial) signed B.

Bramwell married in 1847 his first cousin, Harriet Leonora, daughter of Joseph Frith. She died in 1907, aged ninety-two. There were three daughters. The second daughter, Eldred, married Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.C.S. The baronetcy became extinct on Bramwell's death.

The Institution of Civil Engineers possesses a portrait by Frank Holl, R.A., painted when he was president, and the Society of Arts one by Seymour Lucas, R.A., painted after his death. There is a marble bust executed in 1901 by Onslow Ford, R.A., at the Royal Institution.