Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/394

 1875, reprinted from the Royal Agricultural Society's 'Journal,' 1876.

 CLOSE, MAXWELL HENRY (1822–1903), geologist, born in Merrion Square, Dublin, on 23 Oct. 1822, was eldest of eleven children of Henry Samuel Close, a partner in Balls' Bank, Dublin, by his wife Jane, daughter of Holt Waring, dean of Dromore. Sir Barry Close [q. v.] was his grand-uncle. A brother, Major George Close, was distinguished in the Abyssinian war of 1868.

After education at a school at Weymouth, where his mathematical tastes developed, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated B. A. in 1846 and proceeded M. A. in 1867. He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1848, and was rector of Shangton in Leicestershire from 1849 to 1857. Resigning his living owing to scruples as to the propriety of holding a benefice tinder lay patronage, he acted as curate at Waltham-on-the-Wolds until 1861. Shortly afterwards he returned to Dublin, and did occasional clerical work there. Science had already engaged his interest, and thenceforth he devoted himself to geology. He closely studied the features impressed upon Ireland by the glaciers and ice-sheets of the ice age, keenly observing phenomena during long traverses in the field, and publishing his results in the 'Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin,' in its successor the 'Journal of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland,' and in the 'Geological Magazine.' In a paper modestly entitled 'Notes on the General Glaciation of Ireland' (1867) he embodied powerful arguments for the former presence of an ice-cap over Ireland, and for the movement of ice outward towards the edges of the country from a region somewhere about Fermanagh. Another important contribution to glacial geology, written in collaboration with George Henry Kinahan [q. v. Suppl. II], was 'The General Glaciation of Iar-Connaught,' separately issued in 1872. Close's work proved beyond question that the main glacial features of Ireland must be ascribed to land-ice, though he regarded the glacial gravels with marine shells as formed by floating icebergs during a temporary submergence.

Close was president of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland in 1878 and 1879; and was treasurer of the Royal Irish Academy from 1878 until his resignation in 1903. He was for many years a member of the Council of the Royal Dublin Society. He possessed considerable archaeological as well as scientific knowledge, and quietly supported the study of the Irish language when few other scholars had entered the field. Unobtrusively he did much to promote in Ireland research and intellectual progress.

He died unmarried, in rooms long occupied by him at 39 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, on 12 Sept. 1903. He was buried in Dean's Grange cemetery, co. Dublin.

Close published two works on physics and astronomy under assumed names: 'Ausa dynamica : Force, Impulsion, and Energy' (by John O'Toole) in 1884 (2nd edit. 1886), and 'A Few Chapters in Astronomy' (by Claudius Kennedy) in 1894.

 CLOWES, WILLIAM LAIRD (1856–1905), naval writer, born at Hampstead on 1 Feb. 1856, was the eldest son of William Clowes, sometime registrar in chancery and part editor of the 5th edition (1891) of Seton's 'Forms and Judgments.' Educated at Aldenham school and Bang's College, London, he entered as a student of Lincoln's Inn on 16 April 1877. He had already, in 1876, published 'Meroe,' an Egyptian love tale in verse, and on 11 March 1879 he left Lincoln's Inn for the profession of journalism. Employed at first in the provinces, he returned to London in 1882 and gained his first insight into naval affairs on the staff of the 'Army and Navy Gazette.' Concentrating his attention on naval questions, Clowes accompanied the home fleets during the manoeuvres as special naval correspondent successively of the 'Daily News' (1885), the 'Standard' (1887-90), and 'The Times' (1890-5). His reputation for expert naval knowledge was soon established. Articles by him, some under the pseudonym 'Nauticus,' on topics like the mission of torpedo-boats in time of war, the gunning of battleships, and the use of the ram, were widely translated and influenced expert opinion in all countries. His series of anonymous articles on 'The Needs of the Navy,' in the 'Daily Graphic' in 1893 (, Royal Navy, vii. 83), was credited with substantially affecting the naval estimates. 